


The Difference Between Surviving and Living

by UntenableFutureGoals



Category: Tomb Raider & Related Fandoms, Tomb Raider (Video Games), Wonder Woman (2017), Wonder Woman - All Media Types
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Canon-Typical Violence, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Omega Verse, Pregnancy, Romantic Fluff, Smut, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-04-23 16:48:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 30,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19155058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UntenableFutureGoals/pseuds/UntenableFutureGoals
Summary: One thing Lara had learned best in her many adventures was how to fight and survive. When the chips were down and she was backed against a wall, that was when Lara Croft truly shone.==The tall alpha set her drink and plate on the table, and then scooted around the table towards Lara a little. Clearing her throat, she looked over at Lara and asked, "I am sorry, but I did not get your name before?" She smiled at the shorter woman inquiringly.Swallowing the last bite, Croft hid a wince, wondering whether finding out who she was would make the other woman flee the table—suddenly she couldn't decide if that would be a good thing or bad. "Oh, it's Lara. Lara Croft." She quickly wiped a hand on a napkin and held it out to shake.====Lara Croft meets Diana Prince at the Louvre museum for an archaeology event. Lara of course isn't going to sit on the sidelines when her sworn enemy Trinity swoops in with a robbery attempt. Diana is completely blown away by this amazing but notoriously elusive woman.





	1. Lara the survivor

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Consecration](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16747759) by [HostisHumaniGeneris](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HostisHumaniGeneris/pseuds/HostisHumaniGeneris). 



> Also inspired by the amazing @stjepansejic on Twitter, whose Lara/Diana artwork has launched a thousand ships (or at least this one). Some examples of his Lara/Diana art is here: https://twitter.com/stjepansejic/status/1131598014668333056  
> And here: https://twitter.com/stjepansejic/status/1131705747446927360
> 
> Anyone who finds more good Lara/Diana art is required by law to report back in the comments with a link, sorry I don't make the rules. (Yes, that is a joke.)

Lara Croft was not your typical omega. She wasn't overly social or friendly, and she didn't like to play mediator. While not big or strong-looking, she was surprisingly strong for her size, agile, and could hold her own in a fight. She had survived the island of Yamatai despite her nearly complete lack of experience at the time, and later had almost single-handedly beaten back Trinity to near obscurity. She was sure there were still Trinity cells floating around, but she couldn't really do anything about that until they decided to pop their heads back up.

One thing Lara had learned best in her many adventures was how to fight and survive. She was a pretty good fighter, but was even better at surviving. When the chips were down and she was backed against a wall, that was when Lara Croft truly shone.

====

Lara stepped into the foyer, heels clicking on the marble floors, and accepted the assistance of the man at the front to check her coat. She caught a brief whiff of his scent—he was an omega, too—when he pulled the coat off her shoulders. She smoothed down the front of her dress distractedly, somewhat uncomfortable in such formal wear, even though she had technically been trained for galas such as this. The early death of her mother and, years later, her father, let her have much more freedom in choosing her pursuits, so despite having the title of a Lady she was much less accustomed to dressing or acting for her rank, although she could still do it when forced—like with this gala.

Croft had received the invitation for the gala a few weeks ago for a new exhibit at the Louvre. Lara was sure that they would never have extended her an invitation under normal circumstances, but considering that some of the artifacts to be displayed had been recovered by Lara herself on Yamatai, the event organizers hadn't really had much choice. Neither had Lara—she needed to stay connected to the 'in' circles in the archaeological community, if not for funding then for politics. A few tips from colleagues could be invaluable, or assistance in greasing the administrative wheels when requesting a visa or permission to enter sacred sites.

Lara sighed and cradled her clutch in the crook of her arm before making her way over to the main room. There were clumps of people chatting and a table with hors d'oeuvres and drinks. She made a beeline for the table but was intercepted on the way by a waiter with a tray. She sniffed surreptitiously—a beta. So was the next one, who held out her tray for Lara to select from. The archaeologist smiled politely—at least all of her classes in poise were coming back to her—and picked up one of the proffered hors d'oeuvres.

Popping the cracker with what appeared to be some kind of grilled mushrooms in her mouth, she saw a few familiar faces and wove her way towards them. Of course, none of the people in this room were her friends, or even anyone that she knew well. Lara had never been one to socialize, and of course after the various traumatic events in her life, she had stayed away from others even more. It was really only for events like this that she would make an appearance, as it was more efficient to socialize in big gatherings—this way she could keep in touch with multiple people and it would only take a few hours of her time.

The youngest Croft stepped up to a woman she had conversed with quite a bit over email—a beta, Lara noticed—and asked her how the current dig in Syria was going.

"Oh, Lara! I'm glad you could make it," Dr. Sara Whitaker said, greeting Lara with a friendly smile.

The Tomb Raider hadn't expected such a warm greeting, but her old training kicked in and she smiled amicably right back. After some quick back and forth about the dig status, Sara turned and introduced her to some other colleagues she had been talking to before Lara walked up.

On her quest for the divine source Lara had stumbled across some interesting finds, and once Croft had found that she needed to go to another part of the world entirely, she'd passed the tip on the Syrian finds along to Dr. Whitaker. It wasn't like Lara herself had time to stop and study everything she encountered, so it had just seemed to make more sense to pass them to others. Of course, that was after Trinity had blown part of the Syrian temple up—Lara had told Dr. Whitaker it was due to skirmishes between the warring local factions. In any case, Whitaker was grateful and the young Croft had found that passing along small 'gifts' like this would earn her favors later—like now, with Sara introducing her to other people that Lara could use for future contacts.

The reluctant Croft then spent a couple hours rubbing elbows and snacking, after which Lara decided she needed a break. She hadn't found out anything for her current quest of continuing to thwart Trinity, just some interesting side tidbits, but you could never tell when some randomly dropped fact might be just the clue you were looking for. The youngest Croft mentally filed everything away and scooped up another drink from a passing waiter before turning to the side tables laden with food.

Selecting a few things, she had to remind herself to not shove everything she could into her mouth. _You're no longer stuck starving on an island_ , Lara thought to herself. _This isn't Yamatai or Siberia._

Lost in her thoughts, Lara turned around and almost ran smack into a woman who had been approaching the table behind her.

"Oh shit, sorry," Croft quickly said, backing up a step to avoid dumping her small plate of hors d'oeuvres on the woman's beautiful red dress. _Damn_.The other woman was both well built and tall, she had a few inches on Lara even with her heels.

The tall woman also backed up a half-step, and smiled politely, dismissing Lara's concerns. "It's perfectly fine. Don't worry."

The Tomb Raider was struck by how pretty the other woman was, especially when she smiled, and the youngest Croft was sent mentally scrambling, trying to think of something else to say. She looked down at the plate in her hands for inspiration. "These ones with the salmon are pretty good."

The woman in the red dress smiled again, causing Lara's stomach to give a little flip. "Thank you, I shall indeed try them then."

Red Dress stepped up to the table next to Lara and reached over to the indicated appetizer, when Lara caught the other woman's scent. An alpha—of course, with a body like that, she _would_ be an alpha. The last living Croft decided to beat a hasty retreat before she did something really foolish, like try to flirt with the tall beauty. She turned towards the other end of the hors d'oeuvres table, as if she had just simply been continuing her perusal of the food options. It wasn't even like Lara really knew _how_ to flirt, so any attempt she made would almost certainly end up a complete disaster. Besides, this was a professional event—she definitely didn't need to make herself any more of a pariah in her field than she already was by attempting to flirt and inevitably failing at it.

Croft picked up a couple more items that didn't look too bad—she had certainly eaten worse things before in her adventures. _H_ _onestly_ _,_ _anything was better than undercooked rabbit_ , Lara reminded herself. With her cover thus acquired, she 'wandered' as casually as she could over to one of the many tables sprinkled around the room to set her plate down.

The youngest Croft had aimed for a table that had some of her acquaintances as a slight defense against that alpha—or any other strangers—deciding to keep her company. Not only was she feeling a bit nervous just because the alpha was so attractive, but also the reclusive Tomb Raider still didn't do so well with new people, or at least not where her life wasn't in danger. Put a gun in her hands and drop her onto a deserted island with dozens of enemy hostiles? Fine, no problem. But ask her to have a friendly conversation with a near stranger, and she'd be nervous the whole time or avoid it like the plague.

Before her time on Yamatai—or more correctly, before her dad died—Lara hadn't had too much trouble with making friends and interacting with new people, but it had still been rather difficult. Once she'd started dedicating herself to following in her dad's footsteps, and then later after she'd come back from Yamatai, the difficulty had increased tenfold. Croft just had a really hard time not automatically sorting people into friend/foe designations on first sight, and in general relating to people. It was like something inside her had broken while she was on that island—and not just the physical kind of injury. It was like the danger from Yamatai, the constant state of alert, had followed her home, and now she didn't know how to be a regular person anymore. Her time in Siberia hadn't caused that big of a change, but mostly because it was more of the same type of danger.

Lara would have preferred to eat alone, but making some small talk would be an acceptable alternative under the circumstances. Generally, small talk wasn't all that hard, especially since Lara had found that she had a knack for asking questions that would keep the other person talking away, and give Croft a chance to eat. Her plan was only half successful though, as the last of her table partners, a grad student, quickly finished their plate and only stayed a few minutes before wandering away to speak to their thesis advisor. Lara sometimes wondered if her reputation made people not want to talk to her much, although it was usually not a problem in her book since the youngest Croft typically didn't want to talk to them either. The reclusive archaeologist was just biting into her second-to-the-last appetizer when a familiar tall figure stepped up to her table.

"You're right, they are indeed very good," Red Dress said, by way of greeting. She gave Lara another one of those charming smiles.

The omega Tomb Raider found she didn't have to fake returning the genuine smile, as her mouth simply curved up all on its own, but since she had just taken a bite, Lara let the smile be her only response.

The tall alpha set her drink and plate on the table, and then scooted around the table towards Lara a little. Clearing her throat, she looked over at Lara and asked, "I am sorry, but I did not get your name before?" She smiled at the shorter woman inquiringly.

Swallowing the last bite, Croft hid a wince, wondering whether finding out who she was would make the other woman flee the table—suddenly she couldn't decide if that would be a good thing or bad. "Oh, it's Lara. Lara Croft." She quickly wiped a hand on a napkin and held it out to shake.

"Diana Prince," the alpha said, shaking the proffered hand. Diana's grip was firm and warm, but wasn't too tight and she didn't try to squeeze Lara's hand at all. Croft had found that alphas would sometimes try to show their dominance or strength—or something, Lara wasn't really sure—in a handshake by squeezing tightly at some point during the handshake. The youngest Croft had never been impressed with the displays.

The alpha in front of her was a different story though. The well-built woman didn't seem to be posturing or trying to display anything at all—her actions seemed much more like the betas Lara had met. Of course, Lara didn't exactly have a lot of interactions with people who weren't trying to kill her, but at least in her somewhat limited experience this alpha didn't seem all that bad.

Releasing Lara's hand, the alpha tilted her head slightly to the side, considering. "Lara Croft? As in the Lady Lara Croft who found all those pieces on the island of Yamatai?"

"That's me," Lara said flippantly with a wry grin. She took a sip of her drink to give herself a moment to come up with a proper response. "What area do you work in?"

"Oh, I am the curator here at the Louvre."

Croft blinked twice quickly. "You're Curator Prince?" She had heard references to the curator here, but since Lara didn't work directly with the Louvre that often, she hadn't heard the full name for the curator before. "Oh, I'm sorry—I hadn't made the connection before."

Diana smiled her stunning smile again—and its power to make Lara's insides squirm seemed to grow, not lessen, with its frequency, despite the omega becoming more accustomed to seeing it—and the tall woman briefly laid a hand on Lara's bare shoulder in a soothing gesture. Croft just barely suppressed a shiver of delight at the touch. "Don't worry. I know I do not seem the sort to be the curator of a museum."

"No, it's not that," Lara said hurriedly. "I just don't work often enough with the Louvre to have the name of its curator at easy recall." The youngest Croft knew she herself wasn't a normal omega, and didn't want this unusual alpha to think that Lara would base her judgement of people on out-dated stereotypes.

The dark-haired alpha smiled again. "This is true. We have not interacted before that I can remember."

Lara found herself uncharacteristically blushing slightly at all these smiles, and retreated to her drink again. She took a long and slow sip, trying to regain some measure of her composure.


	2. Party crashers

Diana Prince, Wonder Woman, had been intrigued when she ran into the slight omega at the appetizers table. The very quick whiff she'd gotten of the young woman's scent smelled fantastic, but the young omega had wandered off without trying to continue the conversation. Diana had been disappointed, but had later taken advantage of another eater wandering off to try and talk to this intriguing omega more. The shorter woman was difficult to read, despite Diana's centuries-long experience in navigating social circles, first on Themyscira and later in France. The young omega at times seemed to have eyes that saw everything, piercing their targets to get at the hidden truths within. Then moments later, she acted like one of the bored spouses paraded around the room by famous archaeologists and archivists, eyes and words empty and shallow.

Now Diana had learned the elusive omega's identity, and she found she had the young Lady Croft mostly to herself at the small table—it seemed the omega's reputation as cold and distant was keeping the other gala attendees away. That was just fine for Diana. She smiled again at the slight woman before her and thought she saw the young omega's cheeks redden just a touch. Diana's heart rate picked up a little, and she had to check herself before her instincts made her inch closer. She didn't want to crowd her and make Lara run off like she had before.

Diana tried to steer the conversation towards Lara's personal life, but got little from her. When asked about her current projects, the omega gave short and simple answers about renovating her family's manor and researching ancient Japanese rituals related to the various Yamatai artifacts loaned from the Tokyo National Heritage Museum. Lady Croft was somehow able to turn any personal questions into expositions about what she'd learned about various pieces in their new exhibit, and frequently asked questions of Diana about them. The shorter woman also kept leaning onto her right leg, which caused her left leg, closest to Diana, to peek out of the long slit of the omega's beautiful dark blue gown. It was _very_ distracting, and the tall alpha kept having to pull her eyes back up. She wondered briefly if the omega was doing it on purpose.

Soon enough—too soon, in Diana's estimation—Lady Croft excused herself to get refills on her drink and appetizers. Diana tried to keep an eye on the short woman out of the corner of her eye, still intrigued and wanting to learn more, but not ten feet from their table the omega seemingly melted into the crowd. Diana rumbled, not quite a growl, internally berating herself for having lost sight of shorter woman. She polished off her own plate and wandered back to the table, but saw no sign of the Lady.

Making the rounds to play the good host and ask after her guests, Diana kept an eye out for any dark blue gowns. Eventually, she did find the elusive Croft next to one of the Yamatai pieces in the exhibit, talking to a young grad student. Well, it seemed that the grad student was the one doing all the talking, and Lady Croft would just nod or add in a quick comment or question to steer the conversation. Diana stayed back to observe for a moment, starting a very superficial conversation with another guest to give the curator an excuse to linger a short distance away.

Once she'd listened to a bit of their conversation, the curator approached the pair. The grad student nervously looked up at the alpha's approach and paused her monologue. "Oh! Hi uh, I mean, uh, good evening Dr. Prince," she said, nervously smoothing the front of her silk blouse—which didn't fit right, and was probably borrowed just for this gala. Diana was well acquainted with grad students though, this one in particular, and just smiled kindly at the very young alpha. Curator Prince wondered if the young alpha student was nervous because of Lady Croft's somewhat intimidating reputation, the omega's beauty, or unparalleled success. Possibly it was all three.

Diana encouraged them to not interrupt their conversation on her part, and after a bit more coaxing the young alpha continued. The young grad student seemed to be trying to convince Croft to take her along on the omega's next expedition, but Lady Croft used the same deflection techniques to steer the conversation away from whatever her current project was, a topic which Croft had somehow completely avoided. When the grad student mentioned needing a new project soon, Lara pointed out a Dr. Takagawa at the other end of the hall who was starting to look for help on her next excavation on the island of Okinawa. The young alpha seemed thrilled and thanked Croft profusely before rushing off.

The omega turned to look at Diana, then stalled by taking another sip from her glass.

Diana smiled. "That was a good suggestion for her. You are very kind."

Lara almost choked on her mouthful of champagne. "Uh, well it just seemed like the best fit for her studies." This time it wasn't just Diana's imagination—Lady Croft's cheeks were definitely a little redder.

The tall alpha opened her mouth to say something, but the slight woman in front of her chose that moment to shift her weight and that surprisingly long leg peeked out of her dress again. Diana forgot what she had been going to say and closed her mouth.

Before Diana could regain her thought process, the omega's stance changed again, but this time it was tense, almost giving the impression of a coiled spring, ready to jump into action at a moment's notice. It was subtle though—if she hadn't been already looking at the younger woman, Diana probably wouldn't have noticed the change. Lara's eyes flicked quickly around the room, almost too fast for Diana to follow. The alpha turned to look around the room herself, and noticed nothing amiss.

Then the amazon's own instincts screamed a warning, and she looked around more attentively. It took a moment to identify it, but something was wrong with the waiters—there were too many of them, and they didn't all have trays. And they were walking wrong, too decisive and authoritative, like a ship cutting through the seas of the crowd rather than the careful sidestepping from the waiters before. That assessment took too long though, and before Diana could react any more than that, one of the 'waiters' reached into his jacket and pulled out a handgun. He aimed it at the ceiling and fired three rounds. Screams quickly filled the room and people automatically ducked.

"Everyone just stay where you are, stay down, and no one gets hurt," he announced loudly to the room at large. A few of the other disguised waiters also pulled guns out of their jackets and started waving people to get down. A shrill sound filled the air as one of the security guards posted at the edge of the room hit the alarm before being shot down by the invaders.

At the first shot, Diana went into automatic protect mode as her instincts kicked in and she tackled Lady Croft to the ground. The omega grunted slightly as they hit the floor, but the Wonder Woman was trying to keep her eyes on the approaching gunmen, so she couldn't see Lara's expression or what she thought about being tackled. Idly Diana hoped she hadn't crossed a line with the Lady, but that wasn't as important as protecting Croft in her mind, so the amazon would rather take that chance than risk seeing her hurt.

The invaders were now pulling masks up from the collars of their suits where they had been hidden, covering the lower half of their faces, some of them shooting at the few remaining security guards that were taking cover near the entrance. Two of the gunmen peeled off to come towards the exhibits where Diana and Lady Croft were now lying prone. The lead approaching attacker made eye contact with the Wonder Woman, and reflexively the tall alpha growled at the intruder, hand curling protectively over the omega's side. The attacker paused in his approach and trained his gun on Diana.

"No, this isn't a time for your heroics, alpha—just stay there. We'll just take what we came for and your girl will stay safe and no one will get hurt," he said contemptuously.

When Diana made no other move, the attacker moved on, lowering his gun and turning away to search around the room. The alpha tensed, getting ready to make a move, when the omega under her turned her face into Diana's neck, nose pressing into the amazon's skin. The instinctive need to give comfort by letting Lady Croft hide against her froze the taller woman in place. The attackers were moving past them now, onto their right side.

The alpha's heart rate sped up as Lara's slightly cool nose drifted slightly upward to her ear, and then she heard in an almost imperceptible whisper, "When I say, I need you to lift up off me slightly." Held motionless by the combination of feelings, instincts, and the scent of omega, Diana couldn't even nod.

====

The attackers were almost even with the pair on the floor, and Lara was aware that if the gunmen saw her face they would most likely try to shoot her. She could see the Trinity symbol on their face masks and knew that any Trinity agent worth their salt would recognize Lara Croft immediately, so she kept her face turned into the alpha over her. It was an action that would be instantly understandable as an omega seeking comfort from their mate, so these attackers most likely wouldn't question it, allowing Croft to shield her face from view. Her hair was thankfully covering part of the side of her face away from the curator's neck.

Diana was also no longer tensed as if ready to spring, which meant that Lara would be able to keep her cover for a bit longer. Now the youngest Croft just needed to get to her gun. Unfortunately when the alpha tackled her, Diana had inadvertently knocked Lara's clutch away. It hadn't gone far—it was resting maddeningly just a meter and a half from their side—but it was much too far to be able to reach quickly, and definitely too far to reach without drawing attention from the gunmen. Lara's other option for armament was much closer, but was better hidden and would take some maneuvering to reach. When the attackers had rounded the side of one of the display cases, partially blocking their view of the two women together on the floor, Lara snaked her right hand down between their bodies. The alpha flinched slightly, and Lara could only imagine what the well-built woman might think about having the omega's hand reaching down towards her crotch, but they didn't have time for explanations.

The youngest Croft grabbed the edge of the slit of her dress and pulled it across her body, opening up the front, using as little outwardly visible movement as possible, hidden under the curator's body and dress. She then curled her body slightly, burying her face into the alpha's neck, reaching her left hand down to her inner thigh at the same time. Lara had long had the habit of practicing drawing and reholstering her weapons repeatedly when she was bored, and now the habit came in handy as she was able to smoothly remove her handgun from her thigh holster. She immediately flipped the safety with a thumb, keeping the gun hidden as she monitored the movement of the attackers out of the corner of her eye.

The other attackers in the main area seemed to be too busy with keeping the gala attendees in line and the one remaining security guard pinned down to do more than glance back. Lara watched until she had a clear line of sight to the heads of both the two attackers looking at display cases, then said into Diana's neck, again barely audibly, "Now, lift up."

Lara couldn't be sure the alpha would help, but she was prepared to squirm away if not. Thankfully, the well-muscled woman almost immediately pushed herself up a little, giving Croft room to swing the gun out and slightly up. She fired the moment she had the first shot line up, then quickly shifted to the second. She fired again and instantly dropped the gun back between their bodies, the curator instinctively lowering her body onto Lara again. She could hear the shouts of the attackers in the front, and Croft wondered how long this ruse would work. She had pulled her head away slightly to take those shots, and now she pressed her face back into the neck of the alpha over her. Diana automatically cupped a hand around the back of Lara's head, as if to hold the omega in place, but the grip was more gentle than firm so the youngest Croft didn't feel like the curator was trying to restrain her.

The invaders in front rushed to the back with weapons raised, trying to find the problem, but all they found was the alpha covering a girl on the floor. Since they could see both Diana's hands gripping the girl they knew the alpha was unarmed and couldn't have shot their people, so the attackers spread out slowly, weapons raised, in the direction of the two dead. There were four of them now, and Croft knew it was unlikely that she would be able to kill them all without them seeing her shoot, but this meant that there were only three more up at the front. Lara could definitely take out a group of four and then three, but the youngest Croft was worried that the invaders might try to use the hostages in some way or hurt them. _Better take them out fast then_.

Diana could probably guess that Lara was about to do something again, and quietly rumbled a warning, but Croft didn't heed it.

"Lift."

Lara at least had a clear line of sight and no one was looking over, even if she didn't have any of the display cases as good cover this time. She couldn't afford to wait for them to position themselves better—lives were potentially at stake this time, and not just hers. Thankfully two of the attackers were standing close to each other, and she got two headshots and a shot into a third attacker's right shoulder, the best shot she had at that point, before the fourth gunman turned. He had just opened his mouth to shout when she fired at him.

"You-!"

The man fell to the floor, and this time rather than hiding, Lara kicked against the ground to swiftly get out from under Diana, sliding herself across the highly polished floor. She scooted behind the low base of one of the displays, shielding herself from the remaining invaders in the front, and hoped to god it was sturdy enough to block the 9mm rounds the attackers carried.

A hoarse, coughing shout from the downed attackers was heard. "Croft! ... I ... it's Lara Croft!"

Lara swore. _So much for hiding._ Apparently the man she'd shot in the right shoulder was left-handed, or possibly ambidextrous, because he popped up from behind one of the cases and forced the youngest Croft to dive to better cover. His first shots hit the base of the display she had dived behind, but after that he shot the glass upper portion, shattering it, and Lara was forced to throw up her hands to protect her face and neck from the falling glass shards. While his attention was above, she dropped herself prone against the ground and slid just enough out to get a line of sight. _G_ _ot him_. This time her shot caught him right in the eye. _Now he'll stay down_.

Glass crunching under her, the Tomb Raider scooted back to a position with cover from the front, before peeking out to see where the enemy was. The sight that greeted her was not what she expected. Lara had totally ignored the alpha after scooting out from under her, hoping that the taller woman would do the sensible thing and get to cover on her own—Croft couldn't be shouting directions to her if she wanted to stay hidden, so she hadn't.

But now she saw the alpha already standing up—and somehow now the tall woman had bracers on her arms, where before she'd just had some gold bangles—and then Diana _leapt_. Her bound carried her high into the air, clearing all the cases and tables in the way, drawing the fire from the attackers in the front upward and away from the gala attendees still on the floor. The alpha landed between two attackers, and with quick, fluid movements she punched one and then the other. She leapt again and landed directly on top of the final attacker, knocking him out, too.

Scanning the room, the tall alpha checked for more attackers, and asked if everyone was alright.

Lara, still sitting slack-jawed in broken glass back by the ruined display cases, shook herself out of her stupor and did a self-check. She was covered in cuts from fallen glass basically everywhere, including the bottom of her feet—somehow she'd lost her heels in the fight without realizing it. In all honestly though, she would have kicked them off on purpose during the fight anyway if she'd noticed she still had them on. Heels were hell to fight in. Lara also had several tears in her dress, which considering the damage to her skin was unsurprising.

Keeping an eye on the area where the downed attackers were, Lara carefully picked her way free of the broken glass—naturally in a direction away from the rest of the gala attendees. No need to show them she was armed and a cold killer. She settled halfway down on a bench in the back before realizing she had glass stuck in her rear and hip, causing her to sharply jump up and stifle a yelp.


	3. Wonder Woman, huh?

After coordinating with the one security guard remaining alive and unharmed, Diana Prince directed all the attendees outside to where the emergency services personnel were pulling up after responding to the initial alarm. It took her a few minutes before she was able to get away, but then she went back to check on Lara. She found Lady Croft sitting in deceptive calm while picking pieces of broken glass out of her skin. The omega's eyes kept darting back towards where the fallen attackers were every few seconds though, revealing that her outward tranquility was just a front.

Lara looked up warily at Diana as the alpha approached, the slight woman looking almost defensive. She wasn't sure what the young omega was expecting of her, but the Wonder Woman settled herself into a half crouch next to the youngest Croft and carefully laid a comforting hand on one of the few injury-free sections of the omega's arm.

"There are ambulances outside," Diana said carefully, watching as Lara nodded but continued to pick glass out of her body.

"I guess the police are going to have questions for me," she said, sounding almost glum. She exhaled sharply. "And possibly I'm going to get in legal trouble for carrying a gun." Lara straightened up, obviously a new idea occurring to her. "Shit, I'm going to be in the news again, aren't I?" she asked rhetorically, followed by a groan.

Diana's eyebrows raised. That certainly wasn't the response she had been expecting, although she was coming to realize that she probably shouldn't be expecting standard reactions from this particular omega.

"Well, ... why don't we get you checked out first with the doctors, and then we can worry about the police and your PR later?" the Wonder Woman suggested. Lara sighed at that, but at least she nodded.

Then, causing Diana to pale, Lara lifted up one of her bare feet and started picking pieces of glass out of her heel. Already uncomfortable watching the omega bleeding, seeing Croft's feet like that was the last straw for the alpha. There was no way the injured woman could walk back to the entrance, even if she hadn't been barefoot. The amazon had been trying very hard to not be overbearing towards the omega, especially after having tackled Lara to the floor on instinct, which could very well be too protective for the obviously very independent Lady Croft. Having had enough of pretending that she wasn't affected, Diana promptly scooped up the young omega in her arms, saying in a very businesslike tone, "You can't walk like that." She turned to start walking towards the front.

Lara squawked—very cutely, in Diana's estimation—at being picked up, but otherwise didn't protest. "At least you're wearing a red dress, because you're going to get quite a bit of blood on it," the shorter woman said after a few moments into the side of Diana's head, where the omega had wrapped her arms reflexively around the curator when she was picked up.

The alpha did _not_ like the idea of this woman bleeding at all—it put all of her protective instincts on edge—but Diana felt she was in danger of growling if she tried to talk, so she didn't and instead just grunted in response. The amazon did not stop walking forward—not even to open the door, just turning around smoothly to use her back to bump it open—until she was at one of the waiting ambulances. She carefully settled the young Lady Croft on the first available gurney she saw, and then let the EMTs take over. Diana found that her protective instincts wouldn't let her go very far from this omega though, and stayed nearby.

The medic attempted to get Lara to lay down but the omega refused. "I have broken glass all over my back and legs—I am _not_ laying back on it. Can't I just sit up?"

The medic sighed and asked exasperatedly, "How did you manage to get broken glass all over?"

"What, doesn't everyone roll around in broken glass? I thought that was all the rage these days," Lara quipped back, outwardly annoyed but Diana didn't miss the fact that Croft had also deftly avoided answering the question.

The medic clenched her jaw tight, and Curator Prince recognized the expression of an alpha trying not to growl protectively at the idea of an omega rolling around in broken glass—Diana herself was supressing a growl. The amazon stepped forward to pat the medic on the shoulder, both to calm her and in commiseration.

Finally, they convinced Lara to lie down on her belly—of the omega's front side only her knees, one arm and a hand had broken glass cuts, so she was mostly clear—but she did so grumbling audibly about it all the way up until the doors to the ambulance shut behind her. Diana had to restrain herself from following the gurney into the ambulance, only shaking her head at the medic's questioning look, the first responder obviously assuming the amazon was Lara's mate and would want to accompany them. The medic then closed the doors up and the ambulance sped off, lights flashing.

Diana had been talking to the police while hovering next to Lady Croft—or at least the police had approached her while Curator Prince was so unwilling to leave the omega alone—but the curator still needed to check with the security guards and the other attendees. Diana didn't know if anyone had noticed her hovering next to Lara, but now she made the rounds and made sure everyone got picked up to go back to their homes or hotels.

The amazon gathered her coat to cover up the blood smeared on her skin—again having to supress a growl when she remembered _whose_ blood it was—and then remembered Lara's coat and clutch. She gathered those up as well. The police had retrieved the omega's handgun but Diana hadn't yet told them who had fired the shots at the attackers. She didn't know if Lara would be in trouble for having the weapon, but the curator had asked her assistant to find out and to try and get paperwork that would somehow make it seem like it was previously sanctioned by the Louvre ahead of time.

"But keep it quiet," she had warned him. Her assistant nodded and set off to work.

Diana herself found that she couldn't _not_ visit the hospital to check in on a certain omega, who was one of the few people injured outside of the security guards. As she walked up to the hospital room that the nurse at the front desk had indicated, she heard a familiar voice.

"I don't want any painkillers. I can deal with a little pain." Lara was almost growling.

"Miss, you really should reconsider. It will be very difficult for you to sleep like this—any small movements you might make in your sleep could jar your injuries and cause you to wake up."

Diana stepped into the doorway, and both the doctor and Lady Croft turned to look at the new arrival. Lara humphed and crossed her arms over her chest, before wincing when the movement pulled at the cuts on her arms and elbows.

"Lady Croft," Diana said by way of greeting.

"Curator Prince."

The doctor looked over at Diana, and the Wonder Woman could almost see the plea in the older woman's expression. Turning to Lara, Diana said, "Perhaps you can just accept the bottle of pills to make the doctor feel better, but you don't have to take them? Then if it turns out that you get really bothered by the pain later you can take them."

Lara just grunted in response, and then after a few beats, compromised, "It would be better if they weren't so powerful as to make me groggy or less alert. Do you have something not as strong?"

"Well ...," the doctor said, looking torn. "You might need strong medication to be able to sleep, but ... ok, what if I prescribe you both the strong and light medication, and then you take whichever one you need?"

The omega's shoulders finally relaxed somewhat. "Alright, I can live with that."

After finishing the check out procedures, a nurse walked in pushing a wheelchair, which Lara looked at with a frown.

"I suppose I could just carry you again," Diana offered as a joke, not really expecting the omega to accept it, but when Lara looked like she was considering it, the alpha needed no other excuse. The amazon promptly walked up to the youngest Croft and, very carefully positioning her arms to come in contact with the fewest cuts, lifted her from the hospital bed. Diana had her driver pick them up from the front of the hospital—it was nice having been living on a curator's salary for decades so she could afford things like this—and then asked which hotel Lady Croft was staying at.

When Lara froze up in response, Diana started questioning her thoroughly, finally finding out that Lady Croft knew these assailants and thought they might try to attack her at her hotel. The tall alpha pressed Lara to stay in the guest room at the amazon's flat, and Diana only went up to the hotel to get the young omega's clothes—which were luckily still packed—before they headed to Diana's place.

====

The two women met again a couple months later when a shipment of relics was hijacked at the docks. Wonder Woman arrived to find the warehouse already under attack and the alarm raised. Diana was surprised and yet unsurprised to find that Lara Croft was on scene and had already taken out or disabled about half the guards.

The omega was pinned down by gunfire from a couple hijackers with automatic weapons, waiting for an opening to take her shot, when Wonder Woman peered through the windows at the ceiling level of the warehouse. Diana promptly dove through one of the upper windows—of course making sure that she was far enough away from Lady Croft to not endanger her with any of the fallen glass—and landed right in the midst of the attackers. Quickly dispatching those two with quick punches, she turned and slung the shield off her back to block the gunfire from the reinforcements arriving through a back door, allowing Lara to pick them off from the side.

====

Once all the fighting was over, Lara trotted up to where Diana was tying up the unconscious surviving hijackers. She slipped her handgun into her underarm holster and then leaned casually against a steel girder to watch while Diana finished. The alpha was in her full Wonder Woman getup, complete with metal plated armor on her upper body and a skirt of pteryges, looking just like the ancient Greek princess that she was rumored to be. Diana turned and they both studied each other for a few moments. Lara was wearing much more combat appropriate clothing—in the omega's estimation anyway, although it wasn't like Wonder Woman really _needed_ protective gear so could wear whatever the hell she wanted—with combat boots, cargo pants, tank top, and a leather jacket. She also had her utility belt on, with lots of smaller pouches across the back of her waist. The various weapons she had strapped to different parts of her body went without saying.

"Wonder Woman, huh?" Croft asked rhetorically after a beat.

Diana just smiled that stupidly beautiful smile of hers in response.

It flustered Lara more than she cared to admit, so rather than sticking around and tempting fate, she just nodded at the taller woman and then turned and strode into the back. It only took her a few minutes to find the bronze compass that had been taken from her father's collection, eventually locating it in an office in the back. She didn't know exactly what those Trinity bastards had wanted it for—there were other items that would fetch a much higher price if sold, so it couldn't have been for the money—and looking through the notes scattered in the warehouse office didn't give her any clue.

Lara pocketed the compass just as Diana walked into the office, probably to check on her.

Wonder Woman lifted an eyebrow.

Shrugging, Croft said, "Well, I've got what they took from me. I trust you're going to stay until the police get here for the rest?"

"Yes."

"Well, I guess that's my cue to leave then."

Throwing a two-fingered salute to the slightly frowning alpha over her shoulder, Lara walked out of the warehouse into the night. _It's not a retreat_ , Croft insisted to herself. _I just need to get my head on straight_.


	4. Soft kisses

After that, Lara kept running into Diana aka Wonder Woman wherever she went. The youngest Croft didn't think the amazonian princess was necessarily following her, but they were definitely crossing paths too often for it to be entirely coincidental either. To Lara's surprise (and relief), the alpha did not seem to be trying to protect her or rescue her or any other such stereotypical nonsense. When they were in a combat situation, Diana would often run interference for her or be Croft's backup, and if it were a social gathering, the taller woman would simply take some time to talk to Lara—and of course smile at her in that disarming way she had. It was actually refreshing, and the last living Croft felt some of the walls she'd built begin to soften, and her natural wariness subside.

Lara was a bit confused about the situation though. The amazon wasn't overtly flirting with her—except for the smiling, and Lara couldn't tell if that was on purpose or not, it could be just her normal smile—and Wonder Woman didn't appear to be seeking any information in particular from her. Diana just always made it a point to speak to her at least for a short while, either after they'd finished up a battle or in the middle of a social engagement, it didn't seem to make a difference which. Croft couldn't understand what the taller woman's goal was, so Lara started seeking out the alpha herself—not to talk, but just to watch. The youngest Croft had all the patience of a hunter, and she didn't understand this particular situation, so that meant she needed to study it more.

This time Lara was at one of the various social engagements that people of her class were expected to attend. She normally wouldn't have gone to this one and would have instead spent more time on her research, but Lara had found out that a certain curator from the Louvre was going, so she sent her acceptance of the invitation the next day. The youngest Croft had drifted around the outside of the gathering, speaking to a few people politely in the way her parents had trained her almost from birth. Once she'd established her presence and made conversation with all the necessary people, she pulled back to observe her target.

Diana was mostly circling around the party as well, although not around the outside as Lara had done. They hadn't yet spoken this evening—Lara had made it a point to watch from as far away as she could. She wasn't necessarily actively avoiding the tall alpha, but observation of the type Croft wanted was better from a distance, which had the secondary effect of keeping the amazon too far away to catch her in conversation.

Lara had found a shadowed stairwell after going off to the ladies' room, and decided to see if she could make her way up to the balcony she'd noticed earlier, one that looked over the large patio where the evening's gathering was held. Like many old castles and manors, this one was large and sprawling, but the last remaining Croft had a fantastic sense of direction. She had to pass through what appeared to be an unused guest bedroom, but quickly found her way to the railing overlooking the gathering.

She put herself in the shadow of a column to keep herself out of sight just in case anyone should look up—fortunately her dress was darker colored so she wouldn't stand out too much—and watched and listened. Most of the conversations below were reduced to white noise, but Lara was able to catch quite a bit regardless. Diana was still making the rounds below, but Lara could see that her eyes were scanning the room more often now, and the omega wondered if that was because she could no longer see Lara in the crowd. After a short time of sifting through all the idle garbage and watching the curator exchange pleasantries, the omega grew a bit bored, and tilted her head back to stare at the stars. It was a beautiful night, clear and slightly crisp. The moon was just a sliver, and it felt to Lara like she was looking up into infinity—which, honestly, she was to a certain extent.

A gust of wind blew past and Lara shivered a little. She would probably have to go back down to the ground floor soon, it was starting to get too chilly to be up this high and exposed to the wind. The plaza down below was fairly protected and warm—or she could go inside. She took another sip from the wine glass she'd been nursing all night. Lara dropped her eyes back down to the people below and scanned the crowd again, considering possibly leaving the engagement already. It wasn't like she cared if people thought she was a shut-in for turning in early.

Then the omega noticed that she didn't see the curator anywhere below her, and frowned, scanning the room more thoroughly. Hearing a soft noise behind her, Lara spun around swiftly.

====

Diana had been trying to get closer to the elusive Lady Croft all night, but kept getting stopped by other conversations on her way over, and before she could escape them the omega had wandered off again. She didn't think Lara was trying to avoid her, but somehow she always seemed on the opposite side of the room from the curator. Then, after an hour or so, Diana didn't see Lara anywhere in the room. She thought she'd seen the youngest Croft slip away to the restroom, but that had been some time ago already, so Diana made her way over to the restrooms herself. Not finding anyone except an older lady and her daughter in the restroom, Diana went back to scan the crowd again, picking up a fresh drink at the bar. A slight movement at the periphery of her vision drew the amazon's eyes upwards, and she found Croft on the upper balcony, almost invisible in the shadow of a pillar with her head tilted back, looking at the stars.

The alpha felt moved by Lady Croft's beauty—something in the younger woman's posture, the line of her neck, seemed to call to instincts deep inside Diana. She shook herself back to her senses and went off to find the stairwell, determined not to stand there staring in the middle of the crowd and possibly call attention to where the omega was hiding. The curator knew the way to that particular balcony and didn't waste any time getting there. Walking through the room to the double doors opening out onto the extensive balcony, she saw that Lara was now looking down at the crowd below, seeming to search for something. Suddenly the omega spun around to face her, shifting into a fighting stance and holding her wine glass like she intended to use it as a weapon.

Diana froze immediately, but once the Lady Croft recognized her and straightened up from her slight crouch, the amazon slowly moved towards her again. The younger woman seemed a little wary still. Diana had thought they'd finally moved past the wariness and that the youngest Croft was starting to warm up to her, but it appeared that might not be the case, so the amazon approached slowly so as to not make her feel threatened.

"It is a lovely night," Diana ventured, gesturing upwards with one hand. "Perfect for stargazing."

Lara nodded cautiously. "Yes, it is."

The alpha moved up to the railing alongside Lara and smiled softly before tilting her head up. She heard the omega next to her inhale deeply like she was preparing to say something, but the other woman didn't end up speaking. Diana lowered her gaze back down to the shorter woman next to her. Lara was looking up at the stars again, and the amazon took the opportunity to study her. The youngest Croft really was beautiful.

She waited until Lara had lowered her gaze again, then said, "You left before I got a chance to speak to you."

Lady Croft looked immediately wary again. After considering the alpha next to her for a few long moments, she asked, "Why did you want to talk to me?"

Diana decided that it would probably be better to be open about her interest, now that Lara was directly asking about it. She smiled and stepped a touch closer, gently placing a hand on the one the omega was resting on the wide stone railing. "I always want to talk to you. I want to get to know you better."

Croft shifted slightly away from the alpha, although she didn't move to pull her hand out from under Diana's.

Not liking this turn of events, Diana quickly said, "Please, Lady Croft. Don't keep running away from me."

Lara looked at the taller woman, studying her expression intently. She didn't say anything, but she also didn't move any further away. Diana could work with that.

"I know you're ... a solitary person, but I really am interested in you. Please just tell me if I make you uncomfortable at all, or if you've had enough and you need to be alone, and I'll leave—no questions asked. You don't have to run away from me," Diana said seriously, gesturing with the hand not holding Lara's as if making a vow.

Lara furrowed her brow in thought, frowning. "Why would you be interested in _me_? If you'd been listening to the conversations down there, you'd know I'm only half-civilised." Croft briefly indicated the gathering below them with her chin.

Diana paused a moment before answering. She added her other hand to the one on top of Lara's, gently stroking the omega's fingers, and turned to fully face her. "You are unlike any other woman that I've met—you are brave and intelligent, by turns calming and aggressive, blunt and taciturn one minute, then charming like a politician the next. You are an enigma to me, a mystery—and one that I most definitely desire to learn more about."

The alpha drifted closer as she was speaking, and Lara appeared taken off guard by her words, the omega's jaw hanging slightly open. When it didn't seem like Lady Croft would say anything, Diana continued.

Lifting Lara's hand from the railing and cradling it between hers, Diana said, "Please allow me to court you? Or at least get to know you better?"

Lara opened and closed her mouth, and swallowed, before finally nodding.

Diana's face split into a blinding smile, and even in the low light she could see Lara's blush in response. In high spirits at this step forward—namely, openly declaring her interest, and the omega accepting—Diana raised Lara's hand to her lips and gave it a soft kiss. Lips turning upwards into a faint smile, the shorter woman took a small half step closer to the alpha, seemingly unaware that she had moved closer. Diana stepped into the movement and wrapped an arm around Lara's back, keeping a hold of Lara's fingers with the other hand. She slowly pulled the omega in closer until the shorter woman was nestled against her. Diana pressed a kiss to Lara's temple, just as a gust of wind ruffled their hair. Lara shivered.

"Are you cold?" Diana asked, pulling away slightly to urge the omega back towards the room behind them. "We should go inside."

"But-"

"These are actually my quarters—I am staying here for the night."

Lara allowed herself to be pulled back inside, and Diana closed the double doors, shutting off both the wind and the noise from the people below. The alpha was thrilled when the youngest Croft let her wrap the omega in a blanket and set her on the settee in front of the fireplace, now lit—the fire had already been laid, and these rooms had had an electric starter installed at some point, making it easy for the amazon to start the fire once they'd stepped inside.

Diana settled herself on the settee next to the omega, and Lara had opened up her blanket in wordless invitation, so the amazon didn't delay in snuggling up against the shorter woman.

After a few minutes, Lara cleared her throat, and asked, "So what do you want to know?"

The alpha didn't expect Lara to open up completely just because she'd asked, and indeed the omega only seemed slightly more open to questions about her past than before, but Diana was a little surprised to find how much more open Lady Croft now was to physical advances—not that the amazon was complaining. After a short while of chatting, Diana casually put a hand on Lara's knee, and the omega immediately moved that leg closer to her, pressing just a bit into the alpha's thigh. The amazon's hand automatically squeezed slightly in response. A short time later, Diana moved her hand up Lara's thigh to rest on her hip, turning to face her and pressing a soft kiss to the omega's cheek. Lara turned her head catch the next kiss with her lips, and within moments they found themselves making out with Diana between Lara's legs, the amazon pressing the omega into the high arm of the settee.

====

Lara often had trouble letting people in emotionally, but physical affection was a different story. She had always been open to physical comfort even as a child, but the death of her mother and then later her father left her without many other options. After that, she only ever really got her need for touch met in her various painfully short romantic relationships, whenever she felt safe. Most of those romances ended because of Croft's inability to let people be close to her in a non-physical sense, but while she was in them, Lara was always extremely cuddly.

The youngest Croft had also gone to bars for one night stands since she was so terrible at relationships, but even on the rare one night stands where she actually took someone home, a single night wasn't long enough for her to get comfortable with that person. Once she realized this, she stopped bothering with bars or quick pickups all together.

What with the lack of any relationship for some time, by the time she met Diana Prince, Lara was almost chronically starved for touch. She had suppressed her need to reach out and touch for so long that she almost couldn't remember what being cuddled enough even felt like. Of course, an acquaintance or colleague occasionally would grip her shoulder amicably, or give her a hug if they hadn't seen her for a while, but simple hugs didn't really do enough. Leaning against the railing next to Diana, she could feel the alpha's closeness, and then when the other woman held her hand, she was caught by surprise at the intense feeling of relief from the contact. At the touch of Diana's lips on her skin, Lara couldn't hide the shudder of pleasure that coursed through her whole body.

"Are you cold?" Diana asked, frowning in concern and tugging gently on Lara's hand towards the room behind them.

Lara definitely wasn't cold now—not with this heat coursing through her body—and she had snuck through what she assumed was someone's bedroom to get to this balcony, so she didn't think going inside would be a good idea. Going back down to the party was also a bad idea. Maybe just leaving the party early would be better.

"But-" she started to say.

When Diana interrupted to say it was _her_ bedroom, Lara let the alpha lead her back to the room. She blushed when she realized the implications behind that, but it didn't make her uneasy. She trusted the tall amazon now—for Greek's sake, the alpha was freaking _Wonder Woman_ —and since she had determined the reason that Diana had been so interested in her, she didn't have any qualms about letting this (whatever it was) become more physical. Croft mentally berated herself for previously rejecting the correct conclusion that Diana was romantically interested in her, even if the amazon hadn't been overtly flirting with her. Lara should know by now that not everyone approached a romantic interest the same way—Lara didn't follow the normal openly flirtatious method herself.

When the alpha cuddled up against her under the blanket, Lara found herself purring under her breath, but she wasn't sure if Diana could hear it or not—she would need to ask if her demi-goddess status helped her senses at all, but later. Right now though there were other, much more interesting things happening that didn't let her think about much else—specifically this distractingly beautiful alpha kneeling between her legs and kissing her ardently. As her hands roamed the amazon's body, Lara was only barely aware that the blanket had fallen away, although with the warmth of the fire and their passionate activity it definitely wasn't needed anymore. One of Diana's hands pushed under the sideslit on Lara's dress, and the amazon growled as she started toying with the edge of Lara's panties. Things heated up very quickly after that, and they barely made it stumbling to the bed.

Later, Lara wasn't sure how much time had passed, but she felt blissfully sated wrapped up in the arms of her alpha lover. As the lingering sweat chilled them and the omega started to feel cold, Diana pulled the covers over them and cuddled up next to the omega. The youngest Croft felt a bit hungry, but not really enough to make her want to leave this cocoon of warmth and her lover's arms—and the older woman was an _excellent_ cuddler. Lara could get really used to this. So instead, the omega attempted to ignore it and just snuggled in closer, hoping she could fall asleep first.

A short time later, she did.


	5. The dressmaker

Diana woke to the beautiful omega in her arms turning over to look at brightening of the pre-dawn sky through the shades they'd forgotten to draw before falling asleep. The shorter woman grumbled at the light, but turned back to the alpha to pepper her face with kisses. Once the amazon had made her interest clear the night before, the enigmatic omega had become much more physically open, initiating many of their physical activities. Now if only Diana could get her to open up verbally and possibly talk about her past and present. Last night they'd gotten distracted by the kissing and then sex, so hadn't really had much time to talk yet. The amazon kept an open mind though and hoped to get there eventually.

Lara stretched and rolled nimbly out of bed, starting to look for her clothes. "If you've ruined my dress, you'll be in trouble."

The alpha colored—she hadn't let Lara take off her dress during their sex last night, and had just pushed it off to the side. It wasn't Diana's fault though. Lara's sideslit was so devastatingly sexy that the dress was practically _made_ for sex.

"I'll buy you a new one," Diana offered quickly, suddenly realizing that if the dress was ruined, she might be able to take the beautiful omega out shopping.

"You'd better," Lara said, picking up her dress to examine it. Considering for a moment, she sighed and lowered it—the gown definitely looked worse for wear after their nighttime activities.

Diana offered up some of her clothes to the shorter woman, and Lara dug around through the amazon's luggage until she found a sweater and jeans—rolled up at the ankle, of course, since Croft was shorter. The clothes were baggy but only made the omega look like she was wearing comfort clothes. Diana's inner alpha preened at the sight of the shorter woman wearing her things already, when they'd only just gotten together—or whatever their relationship status currently was. The amazon managed to persuade Lara that they could go shopping to replace Lara's dress by offering to take her out to breakfast as well.

"Oh please, yes," Lara groaned, inadvertently making Diana shiver at the sound, reminding the taller woman of their lovemaking last night. "I'm absolutely _starving_."

While the omega got ready in the bathroom, the amazon called up the local dressmaker. Mme. Margot Pelletier was instantly excited as soon as she heard that Diana wanted to bring in an omega to her shop.

"Oh! Finally you bring me someone. What's her name? Hmmm, do you want me to prepare some things so they're ready when you arrive? Tell me her measurements, or wait, I might already have them if you tell me her name."

The older woman was a good friend and had been almost like a surrogate mother to Diana, seeing as the amazon didn't have any family (not around here anyway) and would sometimes ask the fashionista for advice. The first time Diana had asked her about clothes to wear on a date, Pelletier had immediately taken the inexperienced alpha under her wing. Gradually over the years since then, the two women had gone from mentor-mentee to close friends.

"Do you have the Lady Croft's measurements?" Diana asked, knowing the older woman was fishing for a name but deciding to give it anyway. They were going to be there in Pelletier's shop in person soon enough, so it wouldn't have been a secret for long.

There was unexpected silence from the other end of the line, before the older woman cleared her throat and said, in a strangely reticent voice, "The late Amelia Croft? What would you need her measurements for?"

"Oh, no—I mean her daughter, Lara Croft," Diana replied quickly.

Mme. Pelletier's voice took on a much more expressive tone. "Oh! Little Lara, why I haven't seen her in ages. No, I don't have any measurements for her—she hasn't been in here since she was a little girl."

When Diana admitted that she didn't know the smaller omega's measurements, the older woman made her give a rough guess so she'd have a good starting point. Then the amazon hung up and stepped into the now steamy bathroom to ask where Lara wanted to go for breakfast. They'd have a few hours to kill before the dressing appointment, but the younger woman was definitely hungry now. Even if the kisses and casual touches Lara kept giving her while they were getting ready made Diana think about other activities, her inner alpha would not be easy until she'd fed her new omega.

====

Lara had opted for a fairly inexpensive cafe that had brunch specials when Diana asked where she'd wanted to go—some of her uni friends had introduced her to the place because it was cheap and the food was good. While Lara hadn't had to worry that much about money, her friends in uni had, and as such the youngest Croft had learned from them all the best inexpensive places to eat in the city.

Diana was impressed with the taste and portion size, reminding Lara that the amazon hadn't exactly had a normal education or career. They stayed and chatted for a while after they'd finished eating until the dress fitting appointment. As the time got closer, Lara was feeling more and more uncertain about the idea of clothes shopping with this alpha when they'd only just started their relationship—with a bang, pun intended. Normally buying clothes for a love interest was something that already mated couples did, and it made Lara a little uneasy to think that this beautiful amazon would be buying her clothes after only one night together. Not that Croft was uneasy about eventually becoming mates with Diana—Lara had already spent an embarrassingly large amount of time thinking about the possibility ever since she'd pressed her nose into the alpha's neck during the attack on the Louvre—but this just felt a bit fast. The youngest Croft had never moved that quickly on a relationship before, though admittedly most of them could be classified as more friends-with-benefits than an actual relationship.

Despite her internal reticence, Lara wasn't sure she could get out of the shopping trip now, considering she had been the one to insist about Diana getting her a new dress. Also, judging by the smug expression whenever Lara mentioned dress shopping, she was pretty sure that she had actually been played by the tall but very intelligent alpha, who had been the one to suggest buying a new dress. She guessed that Diana would probably try to resist any of Lara's attempts to call the shopping trip off, and the omega idly wondered if this was the normal way in the amazon's home culture that an alpha showed their interest in a prospective mate—the "courting" the tall amazon had requested permission for.

The curator's driver pulled them up to the front of the dressmaker's shop to drop them off, and as Lara stepped out of the car, she wondered if she'd been there before. The shop looked familiar, but Lara had been all over the city, so it wouldn't be that big of a shocker if she had. Diana stepped out next to her, and the omega squelched her reservations as best she could, threw her shoulders back and determinedly marched up the steps to the front door. She had survived being stranded on an island and in the middle of the Siberian tundra—Lara Croft wasn't about to get nervous just because a really attractive alpha wanted to buy her a dress.

The attendant at the door gave them a slight bow and opened the door for them.

====

Mme. Margot Pelletier was excited. She didn't normally get a chance to make dresses for someone she liked. Most of her customers in this city were either vapid or unpleasant or both, so when one of the people she did like came in for a dress, Margot tended to pull out the stops a little.

Or maybe a lot. She had been running her assistants a little ragged, having them sort through some of her pre-made stock to pull out as examples, or to check for fittings. Diana was usually on time, and sure enough, the bell over the front door chimed just a couple minutes after the clock rang out the hour for their appointment. Although Diana didn't normally make an appointment before coming in to see her, this time she was bringing a guest for the very first time, and Margot was very glad the other alpha had given her a warning. It gave the dressmaker time to prepare.

Pelletier clapped her hands sharply once and her assistants finished whatever they were working on to line up outside her workroom to await orders. Diana and the aforementioned young Lady Croft walked in, and Margot stepped forward with a warm smile to scoop the tall amazon into a hug. Releasing the other alpha, she stepped back to look at her new charge.

"And you must be the young Lara, why you haven't been in my shop since you were a very little girl tugging at her mum's skirts." Margot looked the girl up and down, scenting the air slightly. She hadn't realized that little Lara had presented as an omega—the dressmaker had always expected that she would be a beta like her father or maybe even an alpha. She'd always been a headstrong little girl. Even the way she was standing now in Pelletier's shop, with her chin up and staring down Margot like she was a charging beast. The girl looked like she was prepared to do battle.

Well, Margot could coax even the most stubborn women into dresses and she was prepared. She introduced herself to the young omega, taking her hand and placing a very professional dry kiss to the back of it, before calling out her assistants to come take measurements. Lara had to be herded to the back by her assistants—they couldn't take measurements without having the young woman take off her baggy clothes in one of the many changing rooms.

Once she was out of sight, Pelletier pinned Diana with a shrewd look. The amazon, for her part, only fidgeted the smallest amount.

"You're buying dresses for an omega, hmm? Why am I only finding out about this now?"

Diana nervously scratched the back of one of her arms. "I ... we actually only just got together, but I sort of ... ruined one of her dresses." She quickly corrected herself. "Well, I say 'ruined', but ...." Instead of finishing the sentence, Diana pulled a gown out of the bag she was holding and handed it to the dressmaker.

Margot could tell immediately what had happened from the smell on this dress, and gave the amazon a very knowing look before shaking the dress out to hold in front of her. She examined it for a moment.

"No, it's not ruined," she agreed, "but I could get it cleaned for you. No tears?" She looked along the seams, checking for damage. Margot thought to herself, _Lord knows what alphas could do to clothing when they got excited_.

"Not that I am aware of."

"Hmmm," Margot said, still running her fingers over the seams of the dress, "it's not one of mine, but I'm certain it looks lovely on your omega. In any case, having this will give me some idea of her size and tastes." She nodded to the tall alpha, pleased. Diana looked relieved at the approbation, which amused Pelletier to no end. _So, the outwardly confident demi_ _-_ _goddess was nervous, was she?_

One of her assistants stepped out of the back and motioned to the dressmaker, letting her know that the omega was in a slip and ready to be fitted, so Margot left Diana in the care of a couple assistants who would ply her with refreshments and ask her opinion on dress types. As an experienced dressmaker, Pelletier knew that successful fittings for couples required input from both parties, and sometimes that meant feeding ideas to them separately.

Stepping around the privacy panel, Margot found the young Croft frowning suspiciously at one of her assistants, who was showing Lara a pair of dresses. The omega's eyes snapped to the dressmaker immediately, and Margot suspected the young Lady Croft had either been watching for her or was just very observant and attentive to her surroundings. Margot decided that the best way to get the omega to try things would be to just jump right in and start throwing options at her—though not literally. The way the youngest Croft was standing, Margot wasn't sure if she wouldn't physically retaliate if the dressmaker actually threw something.

"Ah!" Pelletier said, clapping her hands once. She took one of the dresses from her assistant and held it up to Lara. "What do you think? The color isn't bad," she mused. Without letting the omega get a word in, she called to an assistant waiting nearby with an armful of options. "The red one."

Holding it up against Lara, Margot nodded.

"Yes, let's try this one on—arms up." She chivvied the young woman into trying the dress on. "Perfect size in waist and bust, but it's too long on you." She clucked her tongue once. "But otherwise, this would be perfect. Hans! Get me all the premades with this sizing," she said, snapping her fingers at an assistant. After he scurried off, Pelletier turned back to the omega, who looked a strange combination of bewildered and glowering.

"Come, let's go get the opinion of your alpha," she suggested, guiding Lara by the hands towards the front. At the words 'your alpha', the omega deftly escaped her grasp and turned to pierce the older woman with a challenging stare. After a heartbeat, she turned and strode back towards the front without looking back, again looking like she was charging off to battle.

 _Heaven help that alpha, she's got her work cut out for her_ , Margot thought. Although the amazon was both a princess and a demi-goddess, Pelletier's money would still be on the omega being in charge in that relationship.


	6. The curse of the Amazons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, the first part of this should have been stuck onto the end of the last chapter, but I didn't plan this out so well and now these two disparate parts are stuck together in the same chpt. Whoops! Eventually this first part will get moved to the end of the previous chpt, but for now I'm keeping them together in this chpt because otherwise readers might miss it if they skip to only the newest chpt.  
> ===

Diana was not used to being the center of such directed attention. As both the head curator at a world-famous museum and as a princess, usually she was the one in charge and deciding where to focus her attention, but now she just had to sit and wait while the dressmaker did her magic. She was already on her third biscuit and was just finishing her first cup of tea when Lara strode back out of the fitting area, looking anything but calm—she had her 'I am fighting for my life' determined expression on her face.

Once the amazon's eyes fell to what the omega was wearing however, she dropped her biscuit.

It was a red dress with a flowing loose skirt and a dangerously plunging neckline. The hem of the skirt was fairly conservative, going down to Lara's knees, but the rest of the dress was anything but. Mme. Pelletier followed out a few seconds after the omega, with an expression like a cat in cream.

"What do you think, Princess?" Pelletier asked, eyeing Diana. "It suits her wonderfully, does it not?"

Diana tried to swallow the last of the biscuit in a suddenly dry throat. "It's ... it's amazing," the amazon said, coughing a little. Lara cocked an eyebrow at her, and Diana swallowed hard.

"Come, spin around," Mme. Pelletier insisted, coaxing Lara into a full turn. The omega finished her spin with a look at Diana as if daring her to say something—or perhaps warning, the amazon couldn't be sure—so Diana wisely kept her mouth shut, although she had to swallow hard a few more times.

"Yes, very bold," Pelletier said, hand on her chin as she studied the dress on the omega, "but you are bold, so you need a bold dress to match that fire." She chivvied Lara back into the fitting area, and Diana collapsed back into the chair with a sharp exhale.

"This is going to kill me, isn't it?" she asked rhetorically to no one in particular. The two assistants gave her identical knowing grins, and went back to flipping through dress designs in their sample books.

====

Some time later, Lara came out of the back with the dressmaker holding a couple full bags—Pelletier still with an expression like a cat in cream. She urged the amazon to come back in again soon, and telling Diana she'd have more dresses for 'her omega' if she gave her at least a two week warning.

Lara said nothing, but her eyes flashed in what Diana was sure was a dangerous manner. The amazon had never realized before today just how much seeing Lady Croft on the verge of violence turned her on. _W_ _ow,_ _Goddess help me_. Seeing the omega stalk out of the fitting room like she was about to do murder while wearing a number of incredibly beautiful dresses had made Diana have to cross her legs and hold a magazine over her lap. Now that they'd finished, the omega was back in Diana's slightly oversized sweater and jeans, and even without the dresses her angry stalk was still doing it for the alpha. Lara didn't say anything the whole way back, but the silence wasn't awkward—in fact, the amazon was having extreme difficulties just keeping her hands off her new lover till they got back to Lady Croft's manor. Once they got there, Lara dragged the alpha back to her bedroom with a only quick greeting to her butler in passing.

Once insider her room, Lara dumped the bags out on the bed and turned to fix the alpha with a pointed look. "I'm keeping this sweater and jeans by the way." She scooped something out of one of the bags and stalked towards the bathroom. After a few short minutes, Lara came back out, wearing that red dress again—although now the hem had been raised to mid thigh and it swished enticingly with Lara's almost angry strides.

She walked right up to Diana and planted a hand firmly on the alpha's sternum. "You were staring at me like that while I was modeling dresses for you," she said accusingly. "Just like you're doing right now."

Diana didn't know how to respond to that.

Lara pushed her none too gently towards the bed. "Like you wanted to devour me." The amazon's calves bumped into the bed, and the omega pushed Diana backwards so she sat down on the mattress. "Like you wanted to ravish me, right then and there in the shop." She climbed up onto the bed, straddling the alpha's legs. Her hands grabbed onto Diana's belt and started to undo it. The amazon whimpered. "Like you wanted to take me." She deftly undid and pulled down both the alpha's pants and underwear, letting the alpha's length spring free and slap against Diana's toned stomach. "Right there, in front of all of them." Lara gripped the edge of Diana's shirt and pulled it up over the alpha's head, not bothering to unbutton anything. "Did you think I wouldn't notice?" A button pinged against the wall nearby as Lara ripped the shirt off her. The omega unclasped the amazon's bra next, flinging it off to the side. Lara pushed the alpha backwards onto the bed and pinned Diana's hands over her head, then leaned forward to capture Diana's lips in a searing kiss that made the amazon's head spin.

====  
====

A week later.

Diana Prince had just returned from her trip to Themyscira—she had been working with the priestesses on the island for some time to try and fix their curse, and so the Wonder Woman had been making regular trips back and forth between Themyscira and France. While the Amazons were long-lived and wouldn't age, they also couldn't have children, despite having all three statuses on the island, alphas, betas, and omegas. Over the centuries, they had tried various ways of fixing it, but nothing had worked so far to fix this curse that plagued them.

The new theory was that somehow the fall of the goddesses that had protected the Amazons had allowed a hole in their protections, and the ancient curse causing their infertility had slipped through. The priestesses postulated that if they could restore some of the power to the ancient goddesses, maybe it would lift the curse. If nothing else, it couldn't hurt to give Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite more power in this Man's World. The problem would be first finding the temples to the ancient goddesses, and then cleansing and restoring them. While Diana could probably find the temples on her own, one archaeologist that could help her find them faster sprang to mind—a certain beautiful omega that she needed, _wanted_ to see in any case.

====

Curator Prince stepped up to the doorway of the massive Croft manor and rang the doorbell. Lara's elderly butler opened the door and led her into a sitting room to wait for the lady of the house. It didn't take long before the elusive Lady Croft appeared, carrying a book with a finger stuck between the pages to hold her place. The omega smiled broadly the moment her eyes settled on Diana, and the amazon stepped forward to greet her with a hug and kiss.

"I need your help with something," Diana said.

The omega's eyebrows jumped up in surprise. "What does _Wonder Woman_ need help from _me_ for?"

Smiling, Curator Prince said, "I need to find some lost temples to the goddesses of old, and I don't really know where to start. I believe you would be the best person to help me find them."

Lara thought about that for a minute, and then hummed in agreement. "Yeah, I could probably help you with that. What temples and why do you need them?"

Crossing her legs in front of her—and Diana did not miss how the omega's eyes followed the movement—the alpha paused to consider where to start. "What do you know about my background?" she finally said.

The shorter woman tilted her head. "Princess of the island of the Amazons, demi-goddess born to fight Ares when the other gods had died, you fought some in WWII but I'm not really clear what you did there ...." The omega trailed off.

"That's a good start," Diana said. "I'm from Themyscira, which is a hidden and protected island, and is where all my sisters live."

"Hidden and protected? Like Yamatai probably." Lara mused, half speaking to herself.

"I suppose that may be true—but the isle of the Amazons is protected by the magic from the ancient Greek goddesses."

"Rather than a zombie witch, got it," Lara said, snorting a little chuckle.

Diana smiled again—that snort-chuckle was _absolutely adorable_ , but the amazon forced herself to stay focused—and Lara fidgeted in her seat, blushing.

"The problem is that the island is also under a curse, cast by one of the men who tried to prevent us from leaving the land of our origin. It prevents us from ever being able to bear children without men on the island, despite there being female alphas, omegas, and betas there. We should technically be able to bear children without them, but for centuries everything my people have tried has been unsuccessful." Diana shook her head sadly at their failure. "So, we would like to invoke the power of the goddesses to help us finally break this curse. However, hardly anyone in what we amazons call Man's World still worships the old goddesses, except as interesting historical details, and we need a real temple to commune with the goddesses. We have temples on our island, but we believe that the ritual must be cast outside Themyscira to work—we have tried it many times within our borders to no avail."

"And you expect to find a more than thousand-year-old temple still standing?" Lady Croft looked rightly skeptical. "You might have more luck finding pieces in a museum."

Diana shook her head. "Not exactly. We know that there were some temples hidden after the rise of the newer gods that we believe were never found. I want to find those and try the ritual there."

The youngest Croft crossed her arms and considered the idea. Then, dropping her hands to her lap, she turned to the alpha and said, "Hmm, alright." She stood and led the Wonder Woman into her study by the hand. "I remember seeing something about a lost temple to Aphrodite in my research, let's see if I can find it again."

====

It turns out, Lara didn't exactly know where the hidden temple was, and they spent nearly two weeks wandering the Greek countryside, looking in the general area indicated in Croft's research, before they caught a lucky break. She had spent quite a while looking for Yamatai too before getting shipwrecked, so maybe this was just par for the course for magically hidden ancient sources of power. Finally they came across the landmarks indicated in Lara's research, and now that they were close, Diana used the magic phrase to lead them to the temple's entrance, a spell taught to her by the priestess on Themyscira—who better to ask about ancient spells than someone who had actually been alive and practicing spells at that time. A glowing orb was supposed to hover over the door to the temple, but in their case the orb hung in the air over just a smooth stretch of slightly parched grass. Some idea tickled the edges of Lara's brain, so she walked over to it and stared at the browning grass, waiting for the idea to bubble up to the surface.

Standing there, the idea occurred to her that the area was too flat, almost perfectly so, in a region with hardly any perfectly flat spots, judging by the rolling hills around them.

On instinct Lara grabbed one of the shovels they brought, and dug straight down in the center of the flat patch, almost exactly under where the glowing orb had hovered during the spell. The ground wasn't too packed, but not especially soft either, so Lara had to work at digging a little. However, it didn't take long—maybe only half a meter—before she struck something hard. Diana quickly grabbed the other shovel and they both cleared a circle a couple feet wide. It seemed to be a stone, and a very large one. Lara tried pushing down on one side or the other and it didn't seem to wiggle at all, although that was potentially not all that informative—the stone could be three feet or thirty, and they wouldn't be able to tell until they reached the edges. It took them nearly a half hour to find the edge of the stone slab, and then a couple hours more before they had found and cleared all four edges of the slab. The stone still wouldn't shift at all, and Lara had no idea how they were going to get it up without serious equipment. _Maybe we can dig under it from the side?_

While Lara stood there staring at the stone block and contemplating their options, Diana, being Wonder Woman and a demi-goddess, simply walked to one edge of the slab, put a hand under it, and started heaving it up. It wasn't easy, even for her, but she was able to lift it up to her waist and glance underneath.

"Don't breathe it in," Lara warned, backing up from the now open area and covering her mouth and nose with one arm. "The air could be bad. We should let it clear a bit first."

Diana blinked at the omega, but nodded and propped the slab on one of the berms of soil that they'd made when clearing the dirt. Since it was starting to get dark, the two women decided to wait until morning to try breaching the entrance. They made camp off to one side—fortunately, they were at the foot of the mountains and far away from any towns, so they wouldn't have to worry about someone else coming along and trying to get inside of the temple before they could. Lara was actually more worried about whatever might have been trapped inside getting out—she had significant experience with ageless magical guardians and didn't want to repeat the experience if she could help it, especially not at night.

Luckily nothing disturbed their sleep, although Lara slept lightly. She'd found that since her time on Yamatai she now slept very lightly anywhere that wasn't perfectly safe, which had meant that the last living Croft had slept lightly basically everywhere—at least until Diana had asked to court her. After that she only slept soundly when in the alpha's arms. This time though, even with her lover's arms around her, the knowledge that danger potentially lurked nearby kept her on edge.

Lara rechecked her gear when they broke camp the next morning. This time she had bows and arrows rather than a gun due to some problems at customs, but at least she was an excellent shot with a bow and the sound wouldn't be a giveaway to her opponents. They approached the entrance, Lara lighting her small oil lamp that she used to check for oxygen levels—and, coincidentally, flammable gases, though that could be extremely dangerous—and then they stepped down into the newly exposed opening. The slab had been lain down on top of a set of stone steps leading downward. Looking at the solid stone lining the descent, Lara was thankful that they hadn't wasted any energy trying to dig around and under the stone. They descended about fifteen steps to a stone doorway—from above they hadn't been able to tell if it had been open or closed, and in any case it was a good idea to let the air clear before descending. When they got down to the bottom, it ended up being closed, but the door had warped and cracked with the years and no longer fit completely in the frame—meaning that the air could pass to the outside and hopefully wouldn't be bad, now that they'd left the top open overnight.

Diana offered to get the door first and Lara stood back, guarding her flame with a hand. The demi-goddess had to use her superstrength as the hinges no longer worked properly, and ended up half pulling the door from frame. The two women stepped inside the temple and just inside the door, they found two hanging bronze lamps set into niches in the wall—which answered Lara's questions about whether or not the temple had been breached in its long period of disuse. If someone had gotten in, they probably would have nicked those easy-to-carry lamps first. The omega got closer and peered at the old lamps.

"Urgh!" she exclaimed at the smell. "It looks like there's some scum leftover from the oil, but it's dried and gone rancid." She backed up to get away from the stinky residue, wrinkling her nose.

Diana chuckled at the young Croft's reaction. "Well, it _has_ been a few years."

"Yeah, a few."

They continued onward, stopping occasionally so both women could read the inscriptions on various murals and doorways.

"This must have been the repository, a storage area," Diana said, lightly touching one inscription over a doorway. "We need to find the altar."

Lara opened her mouth to reply, when they both heard a terrible noise. To the omega's ear it sounded like ten fingernails simultaneously scratching down a chalkboard, and she winced in reaction.

"Oh my god, please tell me there aren't any ageless magical guardians here," the youngest Croft said, drawing her bow and nocking an arrow.

"Um ...."

Lara sighed. "Why is this my life?" she rhetorically asked the hallway at large.

====

It turned out that yes, there _had_ been ageless magical guardians, but they had been corrupted in the long interlude and were now these scorpion zombie ... _things_. Lara couldn't really tell what they were without getting a good look at them, and even if they weren't actively trying to bite her face off, the slight woman was certain that she didn't want to get any better of a look at them.

Diana had no qualms about closing into punching distance with them, but Lara stayed back and picked off newcomers with her bow while Wonder Woman smacked shit down. They had quickly realized that the beasts were afraid of fire, and even the small flame that Croft had from her oil lamp kept them back. When the beasts _got back up_ after being shot and punched, Lara decided to take things a step further, and started wrapping some of the bandages she'd brought around her arrows then lit them on fire. That proved to be a much more permanent solution, and the monsters did not get back up again after being shot with flaming arrows.

Lara waited till the carcass of one beast had finished burning to a crisp—they went up fast, like they were made of paper covered in gasoline—before bending down to retrieve her only slightly scorched arrow. She quickly scooped the arrow up into her quiver before it could burn her fingers. Fortunately the burning beasts didn't seem to be hot enough to burn the wood of her arrows. "I'm going to run out of bandages if we keep this up, maybe I should just touch the lamp to them while they're down."

The broad-shouldered alpha grunted as she punched a particularly determined beast in the head hard enough to make a disgusting crunching noise. The thing squealed and fell limp to the stone floor.

"Is it bad that we're killing the guardians? Won't Aphrodite get mad, even if they're corrupted?" the omega asked between shots.

Wonder Woman dashed down the hall to punch another creature. "Do you really want to try and perform the cleansing ritual while these beasts are still running around?"

"Ok, good point—crispy critters time it is, then."

Diana laughed. "Your sense of humor is very curious, Lady Croft."

"Well, you know what they say—'when the times get tough, the tough get jokes while lighting things on fire'. I never knew burning things could make me feel so happy." The omega stopped and looked over at Diana. "Wait, does that make me a pyromaniac?"

The amazon princess punched another creature out while Lara paused in her shots to light a temporarily-dead creature on fire before picking up her bow again.

"I should think only if you still want to set things on fire that aren't actively trying to kill you."

"Whew, ok, I should be good on that score then." She shot two more arrows into the eyesockets of the next pair of beasts that rounded the corner—or least what Lara _thought_ were eyesockets. The omega shuddered and tried not to think of it in any greater detail. "Ugh, how many of these things _are_ there?"

Diana didn't dignify that comment with a response—which, honestly, that was fair. It wasn't like Lara was used to filtering herself since she so often worked alone, and she said as much by way of apology. Even the times they had worked together previously, they had only interacted with brief commands or warnings and hadn't stopped to chat.

"Actually, I'm not very used to having a companion on these sorts of ventures either," the alpha calmly replied as they continued checking down the corridor. It seemed like they may have gotten all of those beasts, but Lara would definitely rather be certain. "And for the record, I find your comments rather endearing."

Lara found she didn't have anything to say in response to that, so didn't even try to reply. She was very glad the dim lighting kept her blush hidden though.

They finished their very thorough check of all the side rooms and storage areas to make sure that there were no more of those beasts running around, and then backtracked to the main altar room. The decorations were mostly bronze rather than the gold that Lara might have expected for a prominent temple, so she could only conclude that this must have been a less well-known or less important one. She stowed her bow and arrows as she studied the room.

"So, what do we have to do to cleanse and consecrate the shrine? Have sex on the altar?" Lara asked flippantly. "I mean, it's the temple to the goddess of love after all."

Diana was silent for longer than normal, and Lara looked up from her gear to make sure she hadn't offended the tall alpha. She saw the well-built woman apparently examining the inscription carved into the front of the altar.

"Well," Diana said slowly, after a moment, "that _is_ one way to do it." The amazon quickly continued, as if worried about saying the wrong thing herself, turning to face Lara. "But if you're not comfortable with it then we can try some other ways instead. I know we've had sex before, but that doesn't necessarily mean you want to have sex with me here, right now, and I don't want to push you into anything you don't want to do."

Lara held up her hands in a stalling gesture. "Hey don't worry, you didn't offend me by suggesting it. I wouldn't have joked about it if the idea made me uncomfortable." The omega then paused for a moment. "Well ok, maybe I would still joke about something made me uncomfortable, because my coping techniques involve either jokes or shooting things. But in this case, no, I'm not uncomfortable with it."

The alpha had turned to lean a hip against the side of the altar during Lara's monologue, and was now watching the shorter woman with a faint smile on her face.

"Good," the amazon said, when Lara had stopped and it didn't seem like she was going to say anything else. "I wouldn't want you to be uncomfortable with the idea."

Lara blushed and Diana obviously noticed because the alpha's smile grew wider.


	7. Doing some serious praying (smut)

"Um, so," Lara said, trying to figure out what she was supposed to say or do next. Having sex with Diana wasn't that unusual for her—they'd been meeting up every so often and having sex for a few weeks now—but consecrating a temple to the goddess of love by having sex on an altar was a little outside Croft's experience. She looked around the room, checking out what was there. Not finding a better spot for them, Lara took off her backpack and quiver and just set them on the ground, before also removing her tool belt and pouches and setting them on top of her bags.

Diana dug around in her own small pack and retrieved a flask. "I have some lamp oil that was blessed by the priestess on Themyscira. We should add this to the lamps in here—burning it will help us to consecrate this place."

Knowing what consecration meant in this case, Lara couldn't stop the blush rising in her cheeks at all, but she ignored the sensation and instead just pulled out her flint and steel. She made a urging gesture at Diana for her to get on with it. The Wonder Woman smiled and started adding small amounts of oil into each of the lamps scattered about the chamber, the omega trailing behind her and setting each one alight with her flint and steel. Lara already had her tiny lamp lit, but it would be too hard to try and light one of these bigger lamps with it, and she would almost certainly burn herself trying. Thankfully, the chamber was small and there weren't that many lamps, because Diana didn't have much of the oil in that flask.

"How long do you think it will burn?" Lara asked as she lit the last one. The room was now surprisingly well-lit—the ancient lamps seemed to do the trick.

"This is supposed to burn slowly, so perhaps an hour or two? Maybe longer?" Diana walked over to where she'd set her own pack down and put the now empty flask away. The amazon then strode over to lean against the altar and watched the omega put away her firestarting tools.

Lara, task now finished, felt the need to fidget, but she squashed the urge by doing a quick self once over to see what else she needed to discard before the ... consecration. _Ugh, n_ _ow_ _I'm_ _blushing from stuff in_ _my_ _head_ _,_ she thought to herself as she unsuccessfully fought the color rising to her cheeks. The omega took off her jacket and set it on her bag. Not seeing anything else that needed to go, she finally looked up to see the alpha still leaning against the altar and watching Croft with a small smile. Lara blushed again. Standing there and blushing wasn't really her style though, so instead the youngest Croft decided to take the reigns away from her nerves, and strode as confidently as she could over to the reclining alpha.

The taller woman was certainly amazing to look at, and Lara gave the alpha a long look up and down. Diana had amazingly toned arms, long legs, and she could see a hint of defined abs peeking out of the side of her armor. If she hadn't already known the taller woman was a demi-goddess, she would be thinking it now. This time it was the supposedly cool and collected alpha's turn to blush. _Oh, how the tables have turned_ , Lara thought smugly. The young omega hummed in appreciation, and she set a hand on Diana's crossed arms to rub lightly up and down the alpha's forearm, tracing the definition of her muscles.

"How do you want to do this?" Lara asked a bit distractedly, eyes still admiring the alpha's arms.

"Well." In response, Diana uncrossed her arms and with the one that wasn't currently being caressed, she wrapped an arm around Lara's waist. She very gently pulled the shorter woman closer until their fronts were pressed together. "I was thinking we could try to get back to what we were doing in the Louvre."

Despite herself, Lara snorted a laugh. "You mean staring awkwardly at ancient relics? Or later when we were trying not to get killed?" Realizing too late what she'd just said, she winced internally. _Way to set the mood, Croft._

Surprisingly, Diana didn't seem at all put off by her rambles, and instead the taller woman smiled that amazingly beautiful smile of hers again. Lara felt a little stunned by it, honestly. The alpha reached a hand up to cup the back of Lara's head and neck, then started to lean forward and down.

"No," she said calmly, "like this." She gently nudged Lara's head towards her as she leaned forward, turning it with careful hands, until the omega's face was practically touching the alpha's neck.

Without thinking about it, Lara found her hands automatically wrapping around the alpha's waist and she hummed again, drifting forward until she'd pressed her nose against Diana's neck. She remembered how nice the alpha had smelled that night at the museum, even if Lara hadn't really let herself pay attention to it at the time so as to not get distracted. The youngest Croft inhaled deeply, letting the alpha's scent fill her nose.

====

Lady Croft did her cute little rumble against Diana's neck again, and the alpha shuddered in pleasure. She could feel the shorter woman's breath tickling at her neck and collarbone with each exhale, and it was making it really hard for Diana to think. The omega's hands had started kneading the taller woman's sides almost as soon as she made contact with the amazon's neck—Diana wondered if Lara even realized she was doing it.

The alpha smelled so good to Lara with her nose pressed into the taller woman's neck. The youngest Croft pulled the alpha tighter with her arms as she nuzzled in deeper to her neck. After a few moments it wasn't enough—she needed to get a taste, and she touched her tongue to the side of the amazon's neck. Diana moaned softly underneath her—and Lara realized absently that she had climbed up the alpha and was practically on top of her now, with Diana leaning backwards over the altar.

Lara still needed to taste more though, and with almost tentative licks, she made her way up to the alpha's earlobe, where she attached, sucking the soft part of the ear into mouth. Diana moaned louder, and Lara realized absently that the amazon's hands had pulled up the edge of Lara's tank top and were rubbing along the waist of her cargo pants. Lara hummed again, gently nibbling on the taller woman's earlobe, before pulling her hands back to her own pants to undo her zipper.

Realizing what the omega was doing, Diana's hips bucked involuntarily. Lara moaned into the amazon's ear. Diana growled and squeezed more firmly around Lara's hips, before pushing her hands inside the omega's pants. Almost overwhelmed with sudden want, the shorter woman let go of the amazon's earlobe with a gasp. The alpha took advantage of the release and spun around to be behind Lara, pressing the omega's front into the altar.

With Lara's feet on the stone base of the altar, the smooth upper surface of it was almost perfectly waist height, and the omega leaned forward to put her hands on the cool stone. Diana pressed against the shorter woman's back, fingers still caressing the skin just inside the top of Lara's pants, arms wrapped around Croft from behind. The amazon nuzzled into the omega's neck, licking and nibbling, and Lara groaned again, arching her back ever so slightly.

That was all the invitation the alpha needed, and Diana pushed Lara's pants down until they were down at her knees, running her hands up and down the omega's ass and the backs of her thighs. Lara moaned softly when the alpha squeezed her ass gently with both hands.

" _God_ yes," Lara gasped.

"Goddess," the amazon corrected. Diana's voice had dropped a couple octaves and it lit up Lara's nerves in all the right ways. Diana took the omega's neck more firmly in her teeth and squeezed it, not hard enough to leave a mark but enough to draw out another moan.

" _Goddess_ ," Lara repeated with feeling, only half aware of the words coming out of her mouth. "Oh goddess, _yes_."

Diana was already hard and she adjusted her underwear to let herself poke through the flaps of her skirt. The sensitive flesh of her tip brushed up against the omega's inner thigh, and the amazon groaned, her hips bucking again of their own volition. Lara moaned loudly and arched backwards, pressing her ass into the alpha behind her.

The amazon growled, lifting the smaller woman up by the hips and onto the altar, pressing her torso down onto the omega's back. Her entire length was pressed against the shorter woman's smooth ass, unconsciously rubbing herself rhythmically against the omega. Both women moaned in unison, and Lara pushed her ass upwards, presenting for the demi-goddess.

Scooting back just slightly away from the writhing body underneath her, the alpha took one hand to guide her tip to the omega's incredibly wet entrance. She didn't even need to look to find out where to go with all that wetness there to guide her, and the alpha pushed in slightly.

Lara cried out wordlessly.

Groaning loudly, Diana started pressing forward repeatedly, driving in slightly deeper with each thrust. Lara writhed underneath her, pushing back onto the amazon and driving her in even deeper. The alpha growled and started rutting in earnest, moving faster and thrusting in farther with each stroke. Soon she was bottoming out with each thrust, pushing the moaning omega into the stone altar.

Lara panted, " _Goddess yes._ Diana ... Diana, right there ...."

Diana pushed in deeply and held herself there for a beat, trying to push in as far into Lara as she could, rhythmically pressing inward while buried inside the omega at her deepest.

Lara's cries took on a higher pitch, and she started gasping. "Oh, goddess, Diana! Diana, I'm going to- I'm going to come like this- oh goddess ...." The omega finished with a moan and the amazon could feel her starting to clench around her length.

" _Lara,_ " Diana moaned, increasing her pace gradually but keeping the same motion. Diana wrapped her arms around Lara's waist, squeezing all of herself against all of the omega. " _Goddess._ "

The younger woman's cries were faster now too. Suddenly the omega crested, shouting Diana's name over and over. The alpha continued her motions, riding out the omega's orgasm until the amazon climaxed as well. She pressed in hard as she emptied herself, pumping occasionally. Lara seemed to hit a round of aftershocks with the alpha's orgasm, moaning and rocking with the movement.

When both of their orgasms finally ended, they laid there gasping against the altar, occasionally rocking against each other.

"Holy fuck," Lara gasped after a moment, surprising a laugh out of the alpha still panting on top of her.

Diana nuzzled her face into the omega's neck and the side of her face.

"I just ... holy fuck," she repeated, still breathless. "Is that what worshipping the goddess of love is like? Because _fuck_. Wow."

"I'm not really sure," the alpha said into Lara's neck. "I've never been to one of her altars before."

"Don't you have one on the island?"

"We have a temple to all the goddesses, but it is used almost exclusively for large communal ceremonies. I've certainly never made love at it before."

"Well, add it to your bucket list, because _wow. Damn. Fuck._ " Lara shivered and pressed back into Diana again. "That was the best sex I've ever had in my life, and that's not even my favorite position."

The alpha didn't answer, as she now had Lara's neck and shoulder in her mouth and was nibbling along them.

"Although I could definitely go again," the omega quickly added, feeling herself getting worked up by the alpha's nibbling. "I want to take my pants all the way off though, so I can wrap my legs around you."

Diana pulled out and helped Lara shuffle her pants and boots off, before lifting the omega up and placing her on the center of the altar. The alpha quickly grabbed something off the top of her pack and then clambered up onto the altar after her.

"May I ... would you let me ... tie you up with this?" Diana gestured to the lasso in her hands.

Lara hummed and laid back onto the altar in silent affirmation—the stone didn't seem as cool to the touch anymore, but the youngest Croft didn't know if that was something supernatural, or just from their heated exertions. The amazon scooted forward and tied the omega's hands above her head, wrapping one end of the lasso around an icon to hold Lara there. The shorter woman tugged briefly on her bindings to test them, then hummed again. She looked up at the alpha with pupils almost fully dilated, then she spread her legs slightly in invitation.

The alpha wasted no time and slotted herself between the omega's legs, pushing them further open with her knees. With her tip brushing up against Lara's trimmed pubic hairs, the amazon bent forward to kiss the front of the Lara's tank top over her stomach, then pushed the top up so the amazon could place open-mouthed kisses directly on her skin.

The omega pressed herself upward into Diana's mouth. "Off, take it off," she panted.

Diana obeyed, pushing the tank up over Lara's head until it got caught around her still-bound hands. The movement pushed her sensitive tip into the omega's inner thigh where it met the rest of her body, and both women moaned.

"Bra too," Lara said, still half moaning, and her bra quickly joined her shirt. The omega started rubbing herself against Diana's length.

The alpha couldn't take anymore waiting, and she used a hand to line herself up and pushed in, reveling in how slick the omega still was from both their orgasms.

" _Goddess yes_."

Diana bent back down to mouth at Lara's stomach, thrusting at a slow, easy pace and creeping steadily higher as she went deeper into the omega. She placed a firm lick on the underside of Lara's breast, and both women moaned. Lara arched herself upward into the alpha's mouth and turned slightly, moving her nipple closer to the alpha's mouth.

The amazon rumbled. Diana wrapped her arms under the omega's back as she took Lady Croft's nipple into her mouth. Lara cried out, and the alpha started suckling and then gently teething at the firm bud as the omega pushed up harder against her.

Moaning into the omega's chest, the alpha increased her pace, thrusting in further. Lara wrapped her legs around Diana's waist and pulled the alpha fully inside her. Crying out, Diana let go of the nipple and pushed in hard, burying herself deeply and tightening her arms. Lara writhed against her, pulling herself up with her legs to ride the alpha from below.

As their pace became more frantic, Diana leaned forward to mouth and nip at the omega's neck. Lara tilted her head to give the amazon full access, then started nipping and licking back at the alpha's neck, both of them moaning and gasping with the exertion.

"Oh goddess- goddess, oh, oh- _Diana_. I'm gonna- I'm- _DIANA._ "

Lara came with a loud cry, arching off the altar and writhing spasmodically. With the first clenches from the omega, Diana felt her own climax build rapidly, and she orgasmed just a few thrusts later. Both gasped and squirmed against the other as the alpha pressed deep inside, feeling the omega squeezing around her.

It took them longer to come down this time, sweating and breathing heavily.

"Ok, maybe _that_ was the best sex. Or should I call this whole thing one thing? Maybe I should call this just one thing." Lara was breathless but didn't let that stop her from rambling.

Diana laughed and silenced the omega's words with a kiss. Lara answered by lightly biting down on the alpha's lower lip and then chewing on it gently. Diana rumbled in approval.

"Not the first time I've been tied up on an altar, but I have to say this instance is much more pleasant," Lara continued.

Diana rumbled again, this time narrowing her eyes playfully, and kissed the omega quiet again. Lara laughed.

"You still have to-" a kiss, "-come up for air after-" another kiss, "-kissing me, so I'll still be-" more kisses, "-able to talk." Diana faux-growled and grabbed Lara's lower lip between her teeth. The omega laughed again.

Diana released her after a moment and breathed, "How are you so talkative after that?"

Lara hummed. "Maybe I'm ready to go for another round." She kissed the alpha with an open mouth, seeking and receiving entrance with her tongue. "But let me have my hands back—I want to touch you."

Diana reached up and loosened the lasso. "I'm not sure I'm able to just yet ...."

"Shhh," Lara shushed her, putting one of her newly freed hands over the alpha's mouth. "Just stay where you are."

The omega started to grind upward into Diana's pubic bone, moaning at the pressure. Lara wrapped her arms around the amazon's back to help her press more firmly. "Yessss, just stay right there ... oh, _goddess_ ...."

Lara's pace increased and she got increasingly vocal. The alpha started moving along with her as well, groaning at the amazing sensations from the omega grinding into her. " _Goddess_ , Lara. _Lara_."

The younger woman spread her legs wider to get more sensation where she needed it most, pulling herself hard upward into the demi-goddess above her with her arms. She squeezed tightly and jerked. " _Diana_."

The omega started moving more arrhythmically as her motions became more frantic as she got closer to climax, and the alpha started moving to pick up the pace.

"Yes, _yes,_ Diana, don't stop- don't stop- oh!"

Lara came loudly, grinding herself hard into the alpha above her. Diana kept moving to chase the omega's orgasm, and now the alpha was really hard and turned on. She didn't fully stop moving, but made her movements slight while she gave her lover a chance to recover. Soon though, Lara noticed the alpha's movements and peered up at the demi-goddess with a knowing look. She spread her legs wider and lifted her knees up, giving as much access as she could to her alpha.

Diana, for her part, started rutting hard into the omega's warmth at the invitation, groaning and growling with each thrust. Lara was getting worked up again too, moaning and rubbing her hands up and down the alpha's sides.

"Lara, I cannot- I am going to- Lara, _goddess_ , oh goddess...."

The alpha felt herself start to come but knew Lara hadn't quite hit her climax again yet, so she kept moving at the same hard pace, squirting as she went. The feeling of the alpha's release inside her along with the deep pumping sent Lara quickly over the edge again, and she clamped down hard with her legs around Diana's waist, burying the alpha deep inside. The amazon felt herself be milked by the omega's clenching, and pushed in as hard as she could while she continued squirting, panting and crying out in pleasure. The orgasm was so intense that Diana nearly blacked out, and she collapsed down on top of her omega, still squirting and twitching. When she came back to her senses, Lara had her hands inside the amazon's armor and was rubbing up and down her chest.

It took a moment for Diana to make words come out. "Lara," she half-choked, "I don't think I'll be able to do that again for a while."

The omega hummed lazily and exhaled. "Yeah, no—I don't think I can either. I mean, _fuck_ , that was four or maybe even five orgasms, I dunno I lost count, but yeah, I think I'm good for a little while."

Diana snorted. "Well, I rather hope so."

Lara full-on giggled, sounding more than a little drunk, and she buried her face into the alpha's neck.

"I'm glad I'm able to amuse you," Diana said with a smile. She'd never heard the omega laugh like that before, and the sound was beautiful. The amazon quickly resolved to make Lara giggle like this as much as possible.

"I think you do more than amuse me," Lara quipped, still giggling and snorting into Diana's neck.

====

Eventually, the stone of the altar grew cold and drove them up, although not without some grumbling.

"Next time, we're having sex in a place where I can properly cuddle you afterward," Lara said with a stern look. "Not when I'm sandwiched between your cold armor and cold stone."

"You did not consider that cuddling?" Diana asked, a little bewildered. She was still a little sex-drunk, so she was having trouble following the omega's logic.

"No, that was affectionate sex—I mean like cuddles where I can wrap myself around you for hours or curl up into your side and fall asleep."

"Ah," said Diana, understanding now.

"Yes," the omega confirmed in a firm voice, nodding.

They gathered up their supplies, although they were both a bit jelly-legged still. Neither woman was sure how long they had been at it, since they were still underground and had no idea about the passage of time. The lamps were still burning, and looking inside, it seemed like there was more oil than there had been before.

"Well, this _is_ a temple to a goddess," Diana said with a shrug.

"And we did just do some serious 'praying' at her altar," Lara retorted.

Diana rolled her eyes in amusement.

Before leaving the temple, the amazon princess pulled out her scroll and intoned the words to the ritual, connecting this place to the Amazons and Themyscira, and invoking its newly reawakened power. With the temple magically connected, now whenever the priestesses on Themyscira prayed to Aphrodite, it would affect this distant temple as well, and prevent it from becoming corrupted again. Job done, they extinguished all the lamps and went outside, finding that it was now afternoon, so they must have spent at least a couple hours having sex, not to mention the hunting and killing of the corrupted guardians before that.

Instead of going directly back to their transport, they closed everything up as best they could—although the front temple door didn't want to cooperate and would probably never be the same again—lowering the stone slab down once everything was ready. They then took the time to move the soil back over the slab. They couldn't very well hide the lack of grass, but they tried to pack the earth down to make it look as old and undisturbed as possible. Afterward they made camp next to the temple like they had the night before.


	8. In the heat of the moment

It had been a little more than a week since they got back from the temple to Aphrodite, and Lara was unaccountably missing Diana. She'd never felt like this about someone after such a short time before—granted, Lara had had entire relationships blossom and fail in the same span of time that she'd been seeing this sexy demi-goddess. This felt different though. This time she had a lot more of her feelings involved, and unlike before where she missed mostly just the cuddles and sex, this time what she missed was _Diana_. Although the last remaining Croft was very used to missing people by now, with all the loses of people she cared about over her lifetime, she was most definitely not used to having that sort of reaction to a lover. Diana had mentioned on their way back from the temple that she'd be busy with some new requisitions at the museum for a while, so Lara had even known that this was coming, but still she felt the separation. _Keenly_. This pining and missing Diana wasn't like Lara at all, and the youngest Croft didn't know what to do about it.

So, she did what she normally used to forget that she was missing someone—she researched, and researched hard. Lara spent nearly every waking moment gathering material and hunting down clues on the other two missing temples. She went to various national libraries, called up her contacts, and in general kept herself busy almost every waking moment that she could so as to not remember that Diana wasn't there. By the end of the week, the youngest Croft was feeling cranky, tired, and sluggish.

That was also not like her.

Lara was usually able to research obsessively—yes, she was a big girl and could admit she had a problem—without hardly even noticing the time passing. It was very unusual that she was feeling the effects of researching after only a week. The youngest Croft considered the possibility that in her various interpersonal meetings that she had caught some bug, something that was taking advantage of her lack of sleep and adequate nutrition to get her sick. She didn't often get sick, but she didn't usually go to talk to people in person as much as she had during the last week either. Lara decided that she should probably try getting a little more sleep as recompense, and went to bed early that night.

====

The next morning Lara woke up to the sounds of two familiar voices in her house.

"Croft! Come on Croft, you never sleep in. We've got things to do today!"

Sleepily, her brain matched the person to the voice. Amanda, a postdoc at the Museum of Natural History on loan to a dig group in the UK, and also a fellow omega. They'd been talking a lot this past week with Lara's research into the other missing temples.

"Croft! Come on!"

Lara groaned and pulled a pillow over her head.

Suddenly, her bedroom door opened and the invading postdoc walked in. Lara blearily peered up at her from under her pillow, noting that of course, Amanda had brought Ty along, too. He'd been helping them with several of their research projects recently.

"Come on sleepyhead, you've got to- oh!" Amanda stopped dead in the middle of the bedroom, staring at the other side of the bed. "Croft, you sly devil, you didn't say you were seeing someone!" the other omega exclaimed gleefully.

Lara, voice low and rough from sleep, groggily said, "What?" She rolled onto her back to see what was going on, then looked over grumpily at the other side of the bed—and sat up in abruptly in surprise, pillow falling off to the side, forgotten.

There, lying under the covers on the other half of the bed—and apparently naked as the day she was born, as far as Lara could see—was none other than the subject of her longing, Diana Prince. The tall woman was awake now but rubbing sleep out of her eyes as she blinked at the newcomers, lifting herself up onto one elbow. Once her eyes met Lara's though, the curator's face broke into one of her stunningly beautiful smiles. The youngest Croft felt a full body blush starting up and wanted to do something to distract from it. Her eyes turned to her two trespassing friends, and she suddenly saw red, unaccountably angry.

They needed to leave. _Now_.

Lara jumped up from the bed, thankfully still wearing her normal sleep clothes, shorts and baggy shirt, so she didn't have to stop and dress. Pointing a finger at Amanda, who was clearly the ringleader here, she glared and stalked forward.

"No! No, you are not going to jump to conclusions about my guest." Amanda opened her mouth to speak but Lara barreled ahead, not giving the other woman any opening. "No, you are barging into _my_ bedroom, you do not get to go and make assumptions." The last remaining Croft moved into the postdoc's personal space and poked a finger into Amanda's sternum hard enough to be painful. "Now stop insulting _my guest_ with your insinuations."

Amanda stepped back and rubbed her breastbone. "Well ... I ...," the woman spluttered.

"Lara," Ty interjected, trying to break the tension.

The omega Croft turned a baleful glare on the beta. He was not as big of a threat, but she advanced on him too, as he started to nervously talk while backing up towards the door.

"I- Lara, don't you remember? We were going to-" he cut off with a yelp as Lara growled, and he rapidly backed out of the room completely.

Normally, Lara didn't get defensive or territorial as an omega, although she knew some omegas who did. That never happened with the youngest Croft, but today wasn't normal. She wasn't feeling normal. Today, the two invaders into her private space needed to _leave_.

Having successfully run the beta out of her room, she turned to look at the omega postdoc still standing in the middle of her bedroom. Lara stalked towards the other woman, who immediately put up her hands palm outward in a gesture of surrender.

Brow wrinkling in concern, Amanda said carefully, "Croft, are you ... is your heat starting?"

Lara growled again territorially, veering to put herself between the other omega and her still occupied bed. Diana was sitting up now, and apparently had no concern for her lack of clothing, letting the covers fall down and exposing her chest. The youngest Croft was momentarily distracted and she rumbled at the sight, pleased despite her unaccountable anger at the intruders.

"Um, yeah, I think we'll just, uh, go now," the other omega said, walking backwards toward the door.

Lara shook herself free of her temporary stupor at the sight of the demi-goddess in her bed, and stalked after the trespassing omega, driving her out faster.

Amanda hooked an arm through one of Ty's as soon as she reached him, and pulled him bodily down the hall towards the front door, saying, "Bye Lara, call us when your heat's over!" They then beat a hasty retreat. Lara stayed standing in the bedroom doorway, still uncharacteristically bristling and indignant, as she watched them hurry down the hallway out of sight.

"Lady Croft?"

The youngest Croft turned to find Diana standing behind her, fully nude, and Lara realized that she was purring at the sight.

"Lady?" Diana asked again, reaching a hand out to touch Lara's arm gently. " _Are_ you in heat?"

"My name," the omega said, rumbling in disapproval, stepping forward into Diana's arms, "is Lara." She found her eyes drawn downwards over the demi-goddess' body as she spoke and then lifted her hands to put them on the alphas abs, which she'd thoroughly enjoyed in their lovemaking before, but now Croft found the rippled muscle to be almost irresistibly magnetic. She purred a little louder and ran a finger up to the alpha's navel.

" _Lara_ ," the amazon obediently replied, just barely stifling a groan. "I believe that's probably a yes."

Lara hummed. "I'm not sure—I don't feel normal right now, that's for sure," she said distractedly, almost transfixed by the alpha's abs. She pressed her hand flat against Diana's stomach and gripped it.

Diana swallowed hard, finding it increasingly difficult to think straight. Lara pushed the alpha gently but determinedly back towards the bed, until the amazon's feet hit the frame. Another push and Diana found herself sitting on the bed with the omega sitting in her lap, pushing the alpha the rest of the way down onto the bed.

====

Things quickly escalated, and after what Diana thought might have been round four, she noticed the older man—she believed he was Lady Croft's butler—quietly entering the room and placing covered trays on a side table on the other side of the room. Lara herself was still mostly insensate, curled into the amazon's side and apparently snoozing. The butler left after efficiently depositing the trays, wheeling his cart out and shutting the door behind him with a quiet click. The alpha's stomach rumbled loudly at the thought of food. They hadn't stopped to have breakfast before they'd gotten too distracted to notice their hunger, and it was probably closer to lunchtime by now. Diana rubbed Lara's shoulder gently.

"Lara." The omega twitched but otherwise didn't respond. "My love, you need to get up, lunch is here."

The youngest Croft grumbled in complaint, but at least opened her eyes.

Diana smiled and urged the sleepy omega upright. The amazon gave up after a few attempts at getting Lara to stand up, and instead simply carried her over to the table. Lara instinctively wrapped her legs around the alpha and put her arms around Diana's neck to hold on, giving the amazon the opportunity to free one of her hands to pull out a chair. The alpha sat down into the chair, keeping Lara in her lap. The omega only blinked blearily at the food and then started nuzzling into Diana's neck again.

Worried that the shorter woman might fall back asleep again before she could eat anything, Diana started scooping things into a bowl. It appeared to be some kind of stirfry with rice. She tried convincing the omega to hold the bowl and eat, but the sleepy Croft appeared to be almost drunk with her heat and wasn't able to focus on the food—or perhaps she just wasn't interested. But Diana knew the shorter woman needed to eat, especially if this was only the first day of her heat, so she nudged Lara's face away from where she'd tucked it against the alpha's neck, and started trying to feed the smaller omega.

Lara accepted the spoonfuls of food, seemingly amused by the alpha's attention. Diana had to admit it was surprisingly nice to be able to feed her lover, and the activity soothed her inner alpha instincts considerably. After a few minutes though, Lara started to get much more interested in the naked body she was sitting, on and Diana had to try and eat as fast as possibly before the omega hit another burst of her heat, sneaking in a few more mouthfuls to the other woman when she could. The next time they took a break, the amazon reminded herself before she lost all coherent thought, she would need to call into work to let them know she'd be out on leave for the next few days. There was no way she was going to be able to leave Lara like this—it would be hard enough just trying to make sure they both slept and ate. In any case, Diana knew from how strongly affected both she and Lara were already that it was going to be a long heat.

====

The next time Lara came to, she was lying sprawled in the middle of her bed in bright sunlight. Groggily she looked around, not really remembering how she'd got there. At least she was in her own room, which mostly kept her from feeling anxious. The omega felt sore but pleasantly so—in fact, although a little tired, she felt _fucking amazing_. Almost like she did after her heats-

The omega blinked, then remembering that she'd had her heat, and all of her heat activities with a certain beautiful demi-goddess coming back to her. She looked around the room and didn't see any sign of Diana anywhere, but then her ears picked up the telltale sounds of the shower running. Lara smiled and got up, stumbling slightly. Her legs were shaky, but Croft managed to stiffen them enough to make it over to her wardrobe without mishap, and pulled out some clothes for herself—some junky but comfortable jeans and an old UCL tshirt. Lara wondered briefly if Diana had any clean clothes to wear, and started looking through her things to find something sufficiently baggy that they would fit the taller and more muscular amazon. She smiled then, remembering just exactly how well-muscled alpha was, and how much fun she'd had exploring all of those muscles. The sound of the shower stopped. The youngest Croft grabbed the clothes she'd found and went over to knock on the bathroom door.

She cracked the door open and called, "Diana?" Lara was surprised at how hoarse her own voice sounded.

At the permission to enter, Lara pushed the door the rest of the way open, and saw the foggy outline of the amazon through the glass wall of the shower. She smiled. Even just the silhouette of that woman was sexy.

"I don't know if you have anything clean to wear, so I brought you some of my clothes that I think should fit you." She set the shirt and baggy sweatpants on the counter. "They're definitely very casual though, sorry about that." Her brain was still hazy from her recent heat and struggling to function, but at least the words that Lara wanted to say came out in a mostly intelligible manner.

"Thank you," Diana said, stepping out of shower with a towel wrapped around her torso and rubbing at her hair with a second towel. "I spoke with Winston yesterday—or maybe it was the day before—and he went out and picked me up some things. He seemed to be very excited to go clothes shopping for me."

Lara winced. "Oh, yeah, he's always trying to get me to let him buy my things for me—he's continually tutting about my lack of style and fashion sense. He probably had a total field day with your clothes. I swear that man was a fashion designer in a past life."

Diana turned and smiled her beautiful smile at Lara, and the omega was stunned momentarily stupid, her mouth unable to resist making the answering smile. The tall alpha stepped forward to place a quick kiss on her lips before she went back to drying her hair. Lara hummed and stared for a moment, before recollecting herself.

"So, um," she started, fidgeting a little and rubbing at the back of her neck, "thank you for staying during my heat. I hope I wasn't too demanding."

"Not at all, it was my pleasure," Diana said, smiling again.

Lara smirked at the unexpected pun. Diana flipped her hair over to the other shoulder then, and the omega saw something that made her blush a brilliant red—a bite mark on the amazon's neck.

"Oh, er," she stuttered. "I bit you—I, ... I didn't realize I'd done that. I ... hope that was ... uh, okay?"

Diana stopped drying her hair and put a hand on Lara's upper arm. "Lara, it's fine—I don't mind at all."

The omega exhaled heavily in relief. "Ok, good! Yes. Okay." She'd never bitten someone before, or even felt the urge to, so waking up from a heat and finding out that she'd actually given someone a mating bite was quite a shock. Suddenly Lara worried about how serious this relationship was now. A mating bite wasn't forever of course—at most it caused the bitten and biter to feel uncomfortable out of each other's presence for a few months, until the mark faded—but it was still indicated a much more serious relationship than any the youngest Croft had ever had. Before she could spiral too far into panic though, she heard a familiar voice.

"Miss Prince?"

"Oh, that's Winston," Lara said, pulling herself together a little bit. "He probably has your clothes. I'll go check." She darted from the bathroom, escaping both the situation and the steam that was making her feel a bit lightheaded.

Winston did indeed have clothes for the tall alpha, and things that to Lara's untrained eye seemed to be rather fashionable, nodding to the butler in approval. The omega briefly wondered how _that_ exchange must have gone, finding out that not only was there a guest in the manor but that she was naked and needed clothes. And taking sizes. _Yikes._

Lara thanked the older man and went back to the bathroom, passing the clothes in. She wasn't sure she wanted to step back into the bathroom and confront all the questions and feelings she was having at the moment, so she looked around the room to see what she could do while she waited for Diana to get ready. Glancing at the disaster they'd made of the bedding, Lara wondered if maybe she should wash everything. It had to be dirty by now, especially after a heat. She leaned forward to do a smell check and ... then just stayed pressing her nose down into the bedsheets. They smelled amazing, like ... like days and days of sex with a literal goddess.

"Is it so terrible if I don't want to wash my sheets for a little while?" she asked herself out-loud.

"Well, these _are_ your chambers—I'm sure you can do whatever you want with your own bed."

Lara spun around to see Diana leaving the bathroom, now fully dressed in slacks and a blouse with a billowy scarf around her neck—one that hid Lara's bite mark, for which the omega was privately rather grateful at the moment, since it meant that Lara could more easily ignore it, and the pointed questions the bite engendered.

"I would love to stay, but I've been away from my job as curator a lot during the last several weeks, what with the temple and the conference and staying here for the past four days, so I really have to get back." The alpha was gathering up her things—apparently her armor and other Wonder Woman gear was in the duffel bag she held, at least judging from the clanking—and in general getting ready to leave.

"Oh ok, that's fine," Lara said automatically. Then she considered for a moment, and added, "Wow, _four_ days? That's actually a lot for me. Normally I only go two to three at most." She looked sheepish for a moment. "I hope I didn't make things difficult for you with such a long heat."

Diana set her bag down to take both of Lara's hands in hers, and then squeezed them reassuringly. "No, it wasn't difficult for me, and I would do it again in a heartbeat." She smiled and drew Lara in for a hug and a kiss. The movement felt incredibly natural to Lara, and she presumed that after four days—plus their time together in the temple not so long before that—she'd probably gained some serious muscle memory.

The amazon then took her leave, leaving Lara alone with her very confused feelings about how she really felt about this alpha.


	9. Themyscira

If Lara had thought that she was missing Diana before her heat, it was nothing to how she was feeling after. Even the awkwardness of her needing to apologize to Ty and Amanda hadn't really distracted her from it. Considering most of the youngest Croft's interpersonal interactions were with other archaeologists or historians who were multiple decades older than Lara, having two people that were both near her age and also in her field meant that the two postdocs were the closest thing Lara had to friends.

And right now she could use a friend.

She debated for a while, but eventually caved to her need to talk and rang up Amanda.

"I wondered when you were finally going to talk to me about this whole ... thing," Amanda said, after she'd extracted sufficient apologies and promises to be better from the youngest Croft and had realized why Lara was calling. Croft was rather taken aback at how quickly Amanda had switched modes from 'retribution for past mistakes' to 'talking about feelings', but since it _had_ been the reason she'd called, Lara didn't really feel justified in complaining about it.

"I ... look, I'm not good at this ok? But I need someone to talk to."

Amanda chuckled lightly. "Ok, I'm here, so you can start talking."

Lara paced for a few moments, trying to organize her thoughts, before she finally started talking. "I ... I've never felt like this before."

The postdoc gasped. "Oh my god, that sounds serious. I didn't think you would just jump right into this, but okay ... are you in love with her?"

"I honestly don't know—I don't even know how I _would_ know that." Lara paced again as she talked. "But I almost physically hurt when she's not here, and I want to call her all the time, and I'm thinking about her so much it's hard to stay focused on my research. And I'm _never_ unable to focus on my research."

"Wow, the sex was that good, huh?"

Lara frowned, considering. "I mean, the sex was amazing yes, but I think you have the wrong order for that—it was probably the way I feel about her making the sex so amazing and not the other way around."

"Damn. You've got it bad then."

"I ... okay fine, but what do I _do_?"

====

Diana hadn't been able to get away from work to visit Lady Croft's manor for a couple weeks after Lara's heat had ended, work and other obligations taking up all her time, and the curator felt the separation strongly. The two women had been communicating regularly via text messages, but it didn't do nearly enough for her heart. The amazon had had lovers in the past—even semi-serious ones, both while she was on Themyscira and afterwards—but none of them had felt like this.

While visiting Themyscira to report back on their progress with the temples once she could finally get away from her curating duties, she stopped by to speak with Adrasteia, one of her mentors at least for spiritual and non-combat related things. Diana wanted advice on this quickly blossoming relationship that she had with Lady Croft, but she knew she couldn't go to her mother, Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons—the Wonder Woman was certain her mother wouldn't be of any help at all, or even that she would actively try to discourage Diana. The queen had never been very supportive of any of the relationships Diana had had in Man's World, and always tried to 'helpfully' suggest alternatives amongst their own people on Themyscira. So instead, Diana went to Adrasteia, who also happened to be one of the priestesses to the Goddesses on the island.

After they'd covered the necessary details about finding the next temples, Diana shifted the conversation to her new lover. "You need to spend more time around her," Adrasteia said, after Diana explained the situation. "From what you've told me, you may be experiencing the beginnings of mating separation, which happens after you start to form a bond with someone—and it's most likely that she's keenly feeling the separation too. I know you want to give her space so you don't overwhelm her, but that might not be good for either of you. Go to her."

Diana nodded seriously, and then made ready to leave, but Adrasteia stopped her again.

"Oh, and you know you can bring her to visit us," the priestess suggested with a smile.

====

After an agonizing two weeks, Lara was ready to climb up the walls. She had had to track down some potential Trinity activity, but it had ended up leading nowhere, frustratingly. She'd been putting a lot of effort into finding out what exactly they had been up to since the attempted theft at the Louvre, which meant more spying than research at present, at least until she had a lead to follow. That lack of progress, in addition to her current lack of a certain alpha made the youngest Croft irritable and have trouble concentrating. So when Diana showed up at her house—in her sexy Wonder Woman outfit no less—Lara practically jumped into her arms, nearly tackling her with a hug.

"That was quite the welcome," the alpha said with her stupidly beautiful smile after extricating herself from the omega's arms.

Lara swatted at the taller woman's shoulder playfully. "I missed you."

"I apologize for being away so long—I won't let it happen again."

"See that it doesn't," the omega ordered only half in jest, pointing an admonishing finger at the amazon, who laughed. Lara smiled besottedly at the taller woman's laughter for a moment before recollecting herself.

"So ... not that I'm not glad to see you, as you obviously saw, but did you have a reason for visiting me now?" Croft asked with a curious head tilt.

Diana wrapped her arms back around the shorter woman and smiled. "How would you like to visit Themyscira?"

====

After Diana told her the news, Lara was almost giddy with excitement at the thought of seeing one of the lost wonders of the world, and started rushing around her manor to gather what she thought she might need. The amazon had to beg and plead to get the omega to not treat it as an excursion into enemy territory, or a several-month-long excavation. Lara even tried to bring her bow, and the alpha only just barely managed to persuade her not to bring it—though in exchange Diana had had to promise the tomb raider that a bow would be there waiting for her in Themyscira, if she still wanted one when they got there. Despite that, Diana was fairly certain that the crafty omega had still managed to stow several other, smaller weapons into her bag.

Since the trip would take a while and it was getting late in the day, they agreed to leave the next morning, first thing. Croft insisted that Diana stay the night at the manor—not that the alpha would complain about that, but it was very gratifying that the shorter woman was making her preference known so strongly. The alpha preened a little at the attention her lover was giving her, setting her up with some sleep clothes and in general making sure Diana had everything she needed.

Despite how worked up Lara was, Diana was surprised to find that the omega fell asleep almost as soon as she snuggled up against the alpha's side. _She_ _must be_ _pretty tired_ , Diana thought to herself. The amazon wondered just what Lara had been doing the past few days to make herself so tired, and resolved to try and get her to rest as much as possible while they were on Themyscira.

Diana wrapped herself around the soundly sleeping omega, nuzzling a little into the shorter woman's neck. Lara hardly made a peep—she must _really_ be exhausted. The amazon breathed deeply, settling herself for sleep, when she caught a particular scent. She sniffed the air, then turned her head more and put it directly on Lara's neck over her scent glands and breathed again.

There it was.

It was a scent that Diana hadn't smelled often, but she had encountered it before and knew exactly what it meant. Lara was too tired for the alpha to wake her now to tell her, so Diana decided to wait until morning ... or maybe until Themyscira. _Yes, that would be best, with no travel to distract_ _us_ _._ With that last thought, the amazon snuggled back up to Lara's neck and let the comforting scent lull her to sleep.

====

Well, it wasn't Lara's favorite way to travel, but flying on Wonder Woman's back for three hours certainly won on the novelty factor—she was pretty sure there were very few other people who had ever gotten to try it. Also, as far as ways to reach a magically protected island went, it sure as hell beat shipwrecking on a rocky coastline in a storm. Lara still to this day had a serious fear of rough seas beating against cliffs. They touched down in the middle of a grassy hilltop just outside a settlement. Several amazons had obviously spotted the two women coming in and were shouting greetings to the new arrivals.

Diana knelt down enough for Lara to be able to reach the ground after unwrapping her legs from the amazon's waist—which was a good thing, because the omega's legs had turned to jelly after the long journey and she needed to stagger around a bit before they would work right. By then, a welcoming delegation from the city had reached them, although Lara noticed that the amazons' expressions looked rather guarded, especially when looking at Croft. It was obvious that they hadn't realized that Diana had brought a guest with her until that point.

The Wonder Woman stood up again after Lara waved off the help with her jelly legs, and the amazon princess greeted a woman who appeared to be the lead warrior of the group with clasped forearms and warm smiles.

"Princess, it's good to see you again," the woman glanced at Lara, and her open smile faded somewhat, "and I see you have brought a guest with you."

"I'm glad to be back, Rhea, and-"

Before Diana could continue, there was a disturbance in the group. Another party had arrived, and they moved to the front, the crowd parting before them. Although all amazons that Lara had seen up to this point looked like warriors, these new arrivals looked less like warriors than the rest—maybe they were diplomats or administrators?

"Diana," the most important-looking one said, holding out her arms to the Wonder Woman.

"Mother," Diana said, embracing the woman—the queen, Lara corrected herself internally—who didn't look all that much older than Diana.

"I'm glad to see that you have returned, but why so soon after your last visit? Is something wrong?"

By way of answer, Diana turned to where Lara was standing next to her. The queen apparently hadn't noticed the shorter woman until that point, she had been lost in the crowd of people around them, and the amazon queen's expression hardened slightly.

"Mother, this is Lad-"

"Lara," the omega interrupted quickly, hoping to cut the princess off before she could be introduced with her title, "Lara Croft. It's a pleasure to finally meet you, your majesty." She held out her hand smoothly.

Despite her surprise, the queen recovered quickly, grasping Lara's forearm in what the youngest Croft recognized as probably being the traditional greeting of the amazons, judging by the way all the amazons had been greeting Diana.

"I did not realize that Diana was bringing a guest," she said, giving the princess a look, "but you are welcome to our island. I'm sure the princess would not have brought anyone to our island without knowing they were safe." The queen shot another look at her daughter, but thankfully didn't stoop to making Lara feel uncomfortable about it—even if the princess looked like _she_ was—swiftly changing the topic with a gentle smile at the youngest Croft.

Diana and Queen Hippolyta introduced the other women standing around them, although after the first three names, all of them started to blur together and Lara couldn't remember any of them. _Well,_ _I'll_ _just have to ask for their names again later when_ _I_ _sp_ _eak_ _to them individually_.

After the introductions, the group made its way down the hill back to the city, with some of the women splitting off to go back to whatever they were doing before the princess' unexpected arrival. Soon enough, it was only the queen and a few of who were apparently her guards with them. Diana pointed out different parts of the city as they passed through, and answered Lara's questions about how different tasks were carried out and what function the different buildings served.

For Lara, the architecture alone was fascinating, but getting to see regular people living within that architecture and demonstrating its use was absolutely amazing. Normally all she got to see in her profession were the empty buildings and, if they were lucky, some of the tools, leaving the archaeologists to guess about everything else. Sometimes they were right, but sometimes they were very, very wrong. The omega enjoyed being able to see the city alive before her eyes.

Finally, they arrived at the entrance to the palace, and the queen stopped to speak.

"Lady Croft,"—the princess must have let slip her title somehow along the way without Lara noticing, and Croft shot the alpha a quick look—"as much as I would like to speak to you more as our honored guest, I would very much like to speak to Diana alone for a few minutes, if you wouldn't mind?" Queen Hippolyta looked at Lara with an expression that was somehow both regal and imploring.

Lara looked over at Diana. The princess was looking sheepish and like she knew she was about to get in trouble with her mother. The omega guessed it probably wouldn't get any better by waiting, and so the alpha would just need to get it over with as quickly as possible. Lara sighed.

"Yes, of course," she said, but by way of apology, she stepped over to Diana and jumped up to wrap her arms around the alpha's neck. Squeezing firmly, she whispered into the princess' neck, "Don't worry, it can't be that bad, and in any case I'll be here when it's over." Then she quickly gave the taller woman a quick peck on the cheek before dropping back down again.

"Alright, I'll come find you when I'm done," the amazon princess promised.

When she stepped back, Lara thought she saw a frown on the queen's face, but it was wiped so quickly away that Croft almost doubted that she'd seen it. Despite the queen's potential disapproval, the omega's mission had been accomplished, as she'd gotten Diana to smile again.

Lara was left in the care of an omega amazon by the name of Eireen, who offered to continue the tour of the city, along with a couple guards. They wandered around a couple hours longer before Lara's stomach started to make her aware that breakfast had been a long time ago. Eireen then took them back to the palace, leaving Lara in a room to freshen herself up and leave her gear while the amazon went to find out where and when they would be having the midday meal.

The room was comfortable enough, although not what Lara was expecting for a princess. Maybe amazon princesses were different than the modern European equivalents, the omega supposed, or perhaps they didn't want to presume by putting Lara in the princess' bedchambers. In any case, the tomb raider didn't feel at all offended and proceeded to recheck her gear while she waited.

After a short time, Eireen reappeared looking very sheepish with a tray of food.

"I'm sorry, but the queen has pulled the princess into some meetings and they probably will not be eating for some time yet. They asked that you not wait for them since you are already hungry."

Lara was touched that they weren't going to make her wait to eat, and she dug in, asking Eireen about different dishes and how they were made. They finished the meal and continued talking about different types of food preparation, and Eireen suggested that they visit the palace kitchens. Lara immediately agreed. The kitchens were a busy place, as apparently the palace served as the barracks for all the warriors and guards as well, and that meant a lot of mouths to feed. The two omegas stayed off to the side to keep out of their way as Eireen explained the preparation process. Eventually, Lara wondered if they should interrupt the meetings to bring the queen and princess something to eat, and she said so.

"Oh, I'm sure the omegas brought them something," one of the kitchen hands said with a knowing look.

Lara straightened and turned to look at the woman who had spoken, working at kneading bread nearby. "What?"

"Just I saw the omegas carrying trays that were for the princess."

Lara narrowed her eyes slightly, but she was pretty sure the kitchen hand hadn't noticed yet. "What do you mean 'omegas'?" She glanced over at Eireen, who looked a little pale and grimaced.

"The queen called for several eligible omegas to come for the princess, didn't you hear? She's been trying to get the princess to settle down and mate for years, and it looks like she's trying again now."

Lara snarled, startling the breadmaker into dropping the dough onto the wooden tabletop.

"Lara," Eireen started, "don't-"

"You knew, didn't you?!" the outsider accused.

Eireen opened her mouth again to speak, but Lara didn't give her a chance and whirled to dart angrily from the room.

"No, wait, Lara!" the amazon omega called, hurrying after her.

Her guards, who had been waiting just outside the kitchen, tried to hold the outsider omega back, but Lara had had a _lot_ of practice at avoiding capture and escaping. All the two amazons caught was air as the slight omega dashed down the hall. She didn't know where she was going, but she heard the two guards give chase and darted up the next hallway on instinct.

Usually Lara's instinct was correct, so she followed it, managing to stay ahead of the chasing guards behind her. Eventually, after many twists and turns, she felt like she might be getting close, although she didn't have any real way of knowing that for sure. Croft turned around the next bend to see an array of guards ahead of her at the end of the hallway in front of what looked like a very formal chamber. Thankfully, the doors had been thrown wide open, and even though the shouts of the guards behind Lara had caused the guards in front to draw their swords, the omega outsider was able to nimbly slide under their blades and slip into the room beyond.

"Lara?!"

Once inside, Lara's eyes immediately found Diana almost as if they were drawn to the alpha, and the tomb raider darted to the princess' side. Turning back to look at her pursuit, she found that the guards had all entered the room with their swords drawn, although they were approaching much more slowly once inside. Lara turned back to look at Diana, her mouth opening to explain her entrance, when Croft saw what was behind the princess.

There, arrayed on pillows on the floor or lounging in low chairs, were no less than twelve women wearing fairly skimpy gowns. One of them stood and took two steps towards the princess, calling to Diana, and Lara stiffened as she caught the other omega's scent—because the other woman _was_ an omega, and her scent was _strong_. So strong, in fact, that Lara was almost certain the amazon omega was going into heat.

Lara saw red, and growled fiercely.

Over Lara's shoulder, Diana took one look at the guards with swords and let out a menacing snarl of her own.

Behind the pair at the center of attention, completely ignored by both of them, Queen Hippolyta ordered, "Get her out of here."

"Princess?" the lead guardswoman said politely, but still nonetheless advancing slowing while glancing at the still growling omega outsider. She still held her sword aloft and used it to gesture towards the outsider to let the snarling alpha know what she was ordered to do.

To the alpha princess however, this was taken as a threat, and Diana immediately darted forward to put herself directly between the alpha guard and Lara, growling threateningly. As she did so, the Wonder Woman grabbed the guard's sword by the blade and threw it—and the guardswoman still holding it—against the far wall. The guard and sword clattered to the floor with a grunt.

Meanwhile, the almost-in-heat omega was not all that threatened by a tiny outsider, and advanced towards the princess again, trying to circle around Lara. The tomb raider was growling continuously now, and moved to continue blocking the encroaching amazon. When the taller omega wasn't deterred and took another step forward, Lara punched the near-heat omega square in the jaw, knocking the taller woman to the ground. The outsider immediately advanced to stand over the omega on the ground, finally forcing the amazon to take Lara seriously, eyes wide in surprise.

All eyes swiveled momentarily to the pair of omegas at the sound of the strike, one standing and the other on the floor holding the side of her face. For several seconds, no one made any sound except for the alpha and omega who were each still growling and were unaware of the other's fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI - We're getting close to the end of what I have written already, only about one more chpt, and then there will be a longer break while I finish up writing about 6 different stories.


	10. Surprise!

The guardswoman on the ground stood up, looking down at her sword, now mangled where the demi-goddess' grip had been. The other guards looked in confusion between the mangled sword, the still-growling princess, and the queen, not understanding what was happening.

Suddenly a new voice was heard at the entrance to the chamber.

"For the love of the goddesses, sheathe your swords."

A shorter guardswoman, who had already sheathed her own sword, stepped forward to come abreast of the other guards, who still had their weapons out. She held her hands out in a calming gesture and spoke with an air of authority.

"Can't you see that you're putting the princess on edge, making her defensive?" The other guards looked at the princess, still growling menacingly. "Unless you want to fight the princess right now, put your weapons away."

About half the guards sheathed their weapons.

"The two are obviously bonded, and you know how protective alphas can be of their mates. Do you really want to make her show you what she can do when she's extremely angry?" the short guard asked, gesturing at the mangled sword on the floor and the guardswoman still standing next to the wall where she was thrown.

The queen gasped in surprise. "No," she said, half to herself, looking between her daughter and the outsider, who were both still growling menacingly and completely ignoring the queen.

Diana then took a threatening step forward, and the rest of the guards all came to their senses and hurriedly sheathed their weapons, some of them even taking a step or two backwards away from the princess. After a few heartbeats, Diana's growls reduced and then slowly tapered off completely, although she didn't stop giving the guardswomen angry glares.

"Diana?" the queen asked, stepping closer to her daughter.

The princess on reflex turned to the queen and curled her lip up in a snarl, although she didn't growl. The queen, taken aback, didn't say or do anything else, and after a few more beats Diana felt comfortable enough to turn to the omegas behind her.

====

Lara was still making sure that the near-heat omega on the ground was staying there, but now she was also growling at the other omegas lounging around to make sure that none of them decided to make a move either.

"Lara," Diana said lowly, stepping cautiously closer to the still-growling omega.

When the archaeologist showed no negative reaction to the alpha's interference, Diana stepped closer, continuing carefully until she was able to gently touch the growling omega's arm. Lara didn't try to step away or otherwise reject Diana's touch, so the alpha wrapped her arms around Lady Croft and pulled the outsider omega into her body. Lara obviously didn't want to retreat from the other omegas that she obviously saw as a threat, so Diana had to drag the omega back, taking them both a few steps away from the others.

With the increased distance, the outsider's growls began to subside, and when Diana carefully turned the omega to face her, nudging the smaller woman's face into her neck, Lara's growls finally grew softer and then stopped entirely. The now quiet omega wrapped her arms around her alpha's neck—the alpha princess was clearly hers now, since Lara had made this public claim—and inhaled the taller woman's scent, breathing it in deeply. Diana turned her own head to put her nose against her omega's neck as well.

Both women did nothing but breathe in the other's scent for a few quiet moments—nothing in the rest of the room interested them at this point, it may as well have been only them in the chamber by themselves. Even after breathing in Diana's scent for a while, Lara found she still needed more reassurance that this beautiful alpha was hers, so the omega pulled down the cloak wrapped around the amazon princess' neck until her mating bite was exposed and then nuzzled into it. Lara had the sudden urge to re-give the mating bite and took the princess' neck into her mouth, growling possessively.

The amazons on that side of the room saw the bite when it was exposed and gasped, murmuring lowly—but neither Diana or Lara paid attention to them.

====

The princess gasped and then growled in pleasure when she felt the omega's teeth pressing into her mating bite, and the alpha wrapping herself protectively around the smaller woman as much as she could while still standing. The growls turned to contented purrs as the omega continued to nuzzle and bite into Diana's neck.

"Diana?"

At the sound of her mother's voice, the princess' eyes fluttered open. Moving slowly so as to not disturb her omega and potentially make Lara remember that there were other omegas in the room, Diana turned to meet her mother's questioning gaze. She couldn't exactly ask what the queen wanted without disturbing Lara, so Diana simply waited for her mother to speak.

After an uncomfortably long pause, the Queen of the Amazons asked, sounding hurt, "Diana, what have you done?"

Diana immediately growled menacingly at her mother in response, unable to hold back, and Lara startled in her arms, blinking her eyes blearily and looking around the room to identify the threat. Now that Lara was alert and it seemed that there was still a threat in this room, Diana wanted to take her omega and go somewhere safer, so she picked Lara up effortlessly as preparation to leave.

"What I have done, Mother, is return home to try and inform you about my relationship with Lara—and what you have done, is ignore everything I've been trying to tell you and try to throw omegas at me in a clear attempt to have them seduce me away from Lara-" the omega in her arms growled menacingly at that, "-and I will not stand idly by and let you continue this. If you cannot be happy for me or accept my good news then Lara and I will not visit you, and we will raise our child away from Themyscira."

Lara twitched strongly in her arms, but Diana kept her fierce gaze fixed on her mother, trying to make the older woman understand.

"Um," Lara said uncertainly after a long few moments, finally drawing the alpha's gaze. "I'm not pregnant—I'm on birth control."

The omega looked scared and worried, so Diana stroked her hair. She opened her mouth to speak, but the youngest Croft cut in again.

"I can't be pregnant."

"Lara," Diana interjected firmly. "I noticed it last night after you'd already fallen asleep—your scent has changed. I was planning to talk to you about it after we had some rest time after the journey, but then I was pulled away." The princess' eyes flicked angrily to her mother for a brief moment.

"I'm pregnant?" Lara asked, starting to show real fear in her expression.

Diana nodded, and tried to reassure her omega with a quick squeeze of her arms.

"But I shouldn't- ... I can't get pregnant—I'd be vulnerable to attack, and what if those Trinity bastards find out and decide to attack me when I can't defend myself? Oh my god, I didn't even really have any sort of real role models to copy, my parents were either dead or terrible at parenting, and now they're both gone and I have no one else and oh my god what am I going to do??"

Hearing her omega beginning to panic, Diana cut in. "Shh, shhhh, Lara—you won't be alone, I'll be with you every step of the way. This isn't like Man's World, where women are neglected and forced to fend for themselves during their pregnancy or while raising their children. Even if my mother disapproves, you will always, always have me and my support—but I suspect you'll also have an entire island full of amazons who would help with our child."

Lara's face went through a whole range of emotions from surprise to love to anxiety and back, and Diana instinctively tucked the omega back against her body protectively—an alpha pressing themselves tightly against an upset mate was soothing and would help calm Lara down.

====

Lara was feeling overwhelmed and distressed—normally the omega didn't get this territorial around other omegas, or this flustered by adverse situations, but the combination of all the adrenaline and the later shock of finding out she was pregnant were making her feel a little bit out of control. She was also feeling very defensive of her relatively newfound happiness with Diana, and desperate to not let it slip away from her. Eventually she got a better hold on her emotions and stopped growling—only just then realizing that she was growling. Then Lara discovered after a short disorienting moment that she'd been pinned down to the ground by the princess, and that Diana was purring softly into the omega's neck and was curled protectively around her.

Lara huffed, her disoriented surprise instantly melting away, saying, "Why is it I keep finding myself in compromising positions where I'm pinned against a hard and cold surface underneath you while you're still wearing your armor?" For emphasis, she flicked a finger against Diana's breastplate with a dull thunk.

Diana pulled her head back enough to smile at her omega as soon as she heard Lara start to speak. "Always ready with the jokes I see, Lady Croft." The princess ducked in to give her a quick kiss.

Snorting, the omega quipped, "I don't see why I'd stop now when you seem to like it so much."

"Your highness," one of the guards started, bowing, from a respectful distance away. Lara recognized the amazon as the one who'd been telling the guards to sheathe their weapons—the youngest Croft gazed warily at the guard, but didn't feel angered or threatened enough by the amazon to snarl or growl at her. "May I suggest that you take your mate to your shared quarters to rest and recover, considering you've had a long journey?"

The suggestion seemed reasonable to Lara, although Croft noted that the guardswoman did not mention anything about letting everyone calm down after all the threats of violence—and surely that must have been one of the reasons. Lara looked over at Diana and nosed the alpha's cheek when the omega Croft could see the princess' jaw muscles flexing. When that didn't provoke the acceptance that Lara wanted, she nosed Diana's cheek again, this time with a small sound of encouragement.

That seemed to cut through the alpha's thoughts, and Diana's lips turned upwards in a smile. "Thank you, Guardscaptain Cora, that is an excellent suggestion."

"Of course, Princess," the Guardscaptain said smoothly, stepping back more to give the couple some space while shooing the other guards further away. Once they were both on their feet, Cora said, "This way, your highness."

The Guardscaptain nodded to two other guards to follow them, both betas Lara guessed, though the two kept well back and made no move towards their weapons, especially since the princess kept looking back at them with a threatening glare. Cora took them back to the simple room that Lara had eaten her lunch in earlier, and again the omega wondered if these really were supposed to be the princess' quarters in her home palace—or if the Guardscaptain just led them here because Lara's things were already inside the room, and the bed and cushions probably smelled of her now.

Before Cora left however, she had a very strange request.

"My lady, Princess ... would it be acceptable if I scented you, Lady Croft?"

Lara frowned in wary confusion, but the request made Diana smile for some reason—the omega archaeologist wondered if it was some sort of cultural behavior among Themyscirans. When she looked questioningly over at her alpha, Diana just nudged her and reiterated the question. Lara still wasn't sure about it, but with Diana holding her and encouraging the omega, Lara didn't really mind all that much, so she allowed the request with a slow nod.

Guardscaptain Cora bowed deeply, and then approached the pair slowly while Diana stroked her omega's back soothingly. With the calming rubs from her alpha Lara almost completely relaxed, and so when Cora slowly stepped closer and then sniffed, the omega tilted her neck open invitingly to the guard. Cora stepped close enough to just briefly touch her nose to the outsider's neck, inhaling deeply, before the short amazon guard stepped quickly away.

"Please enjoy your rest, Princess, my lady," she said to both of them, and with that Cora stepped quickly outside of the room.

====

Once the door closed behind the guardscaptain, Lara turned to Diana and asked with a slight frown, "What was that about?"

"It's the way we announce or confirm a pregnancy, although typically only with close family members or the family of your mate, but since closing off our island we haven't had any babies born so it's just become a greeting among close friends or family," the princess said. Smiling softly, she added, "You are probably the first woman on this island to be able to announce a pregnancy in this way since my people retreated from Man's World—I've actually never seen it used that way before, since I was born after we'd moved to the island, but I learned about it."

Lara seemed both stunned and unnerved. "That doesn't actually make me feel better about any of this—that's a lot of pressure to live up to."

The amazon princess stepped closer to wrap her arms around the omega comfortingly. "No one will pressure you for anything—and if they do, I will put a stop to it."

The youngest Croft melted into Diana's arms, sinking into the feeling of safety and care she represented. The amazon princess pulled them back towards the bed, sitting down, Lara settling down in her lap.

"We should probably talk about this—me being pregnant, I mean," Lara said into the alpha's shoulder. "I don't even understand how this could have happened."

Diana winced. "That is most likely because we made love on the altar to Aphrodite the goddess of love."

"Multiple times," Lara interjected.

"Yes, multiple times," Diana corrected. "I didn't realize that it would interfere with your birth control, but I should have thought of it and warned you about the possibility."

"Well, it's not like I haven't seen weirder things happen on the altar to a god."

Diana pulled back enough to be able to look at the omega's face, studying her expression closely. "I know this is sudden and unexpected, but I want you to know that whatever you decide I will support you."

Lara at first had trouble meeting the amazon princess' eyes, but then she sighed and looked up at her lover. "I don't necessarily have a problem with kids, but ... I doubt I would be a good mother. I get too absorbed in my research, and I put my life in danger too often."

Nodding, Diana said, "Yes, that is true, and I put my life in danger too often as well—we would both have to reduce that in order to be responsible parents for a child."

Croft blinked up at her. "And you'd be okay with that?" she asked in surprise.

"Yes, for a child—or for you, if you were to ask—I would stop being Wonder Woman, except in extreme situations or where your life or our child's were in danger."

"I take it you want to have kids then, at least eventually?"

Diana nodded. "I would like that at some point in my life, but it doesn't have to be now if you don't want that."

"Hmmm," Lara said thoughtfully. "Well, I'd like to think about it. I mean, I should have time to decide." She turned to look up questioningly at her alpha. "I do have time, right? Can you tell how far along I am?"

"Yes, you have time—you only faintly smell of pregnancy, so it must be fairly early still."

"Well, we should definitely go see a doctor to have them tell us."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, that's everything that I have written up to this point, so it'll be a while before I have a new chapter to post.


End file.
